When life hands you lemons
by Queenphoenix
Summary: Alex Sinclair is the new girl at Seigaku High. A chance meeting throws her in with Kaidoh, and something blossoms. But Alex has shadows in her past, and those shadows are coming back to haunt her... Kaidoh X OC, eventual other pairings.
1. That damn new girl

Disclaimer: I don't own Tennis no Oujisama

* * *

**That damn new girl**

* * *

Seigaku Senior High School was large and confusing at the best of times. With its multitude of stairwells and numerous passages, it was far too easy to get lost. 

Alex Sinclair looked around her new school curiously as the bell rang. She knew it was past time she went to her homeroom, but there was just one problem. She had no clue how to get there. Hurriedly, she scanned the foyer for somebody who looked like they knew what they were doing, and spotted a tall boy making his way purposely through the crowd of last-minute arrivals. Reasoning that he probably knew as much about the school as anybody, she quickly approached him.

* * *

Kaidoh scowled at the obviously European girl coming towards him. He was already late for homeroom as it was, and did not need to be delayed by yet another mindless fangirl. The fact that he'd never seen this particular stalker before bothered him slightly, for he was sure that he would have remembered a so obviously not-Japanese girl following him, but it didn't bother him enough that he wouldn't try to avoid her now. 

However, before the unfortunate mamushi could successfully lose himself in the crowd, the girl stopped in front of him and addressed him with a polite 'excuse me'.

As ignoring her now would be rude, Kaidoh found himself forced to acknowledge her presence. "What?" he hissed, glaring at her. Maybe if he scared her, she'd leave him alone.

The girl simply ignored the glare and pulled a piece of paper out of her bag. Kaidoh scowled, sure that she was about to give him a love-letter – he'd seen random crazy girls approach many of the other regulars with such foolish confessions. Normally his stalkers were too cowed by his permanent glare to do that, but he supposed there were exceptions to every rule. He really didn't have time for this.

Before he could protest however, the girl consulted her paper. "Would you happen to know how to get to room 1-3?" she asked calmly.

"…Yes," the surprised young man admitted reluctantly, noting that this girl spoke perfect Japanese.

"Would you be able to give me directions?" the girl asked, apparently not noticing his surprise.

Kaidoh stared at the girl. Why wasn't she cowering in a corner? That was the usual reaction of a girl subjected to his glare. Instead, she didn't even seem to notice. Something about that piqued his curiosity. "I was just going there," he muttered "You might as well follow me…"

Some distant part of Kaidoh's brain wondered why in the world he just said that, but quickly gave up the fight since, as logic reasoned, what was said could not be un-said.

The girl smiled with relief. "Ah, thank you so much. I'm actually not all that great with directions," she admitted.

Suddenly, a cheerful red-haired boy latched himself onto Kaidoh's back, glomping him from behind. "Hoi hoi! Kaidoh-kun has a girlfriend, nya!" he mewed enthusiastically, embarrassing Kaidoh into a bright shade of pink. "She's not my girlfriend, senpai!" he hissed furiously, pushing the acrobatic tennis player off him as the girl looked on without a change in expression. Apparently, she wasn't at all bothered by the allegations - or the yelling either, for that matter.

Eiji continued teasing Kaidoh, dancing around the frustrated snake cheerfully as a third boy hurried over. "So, aren't you going to tell us your girlfriend's name?" Eiji sang. Kaidoh just scowled at him. The new arrival sternly told the red-haired boy to leave the other alone.

"Oh, sorry," the girl apologized calmly, ignoring the chaos and addressing the question instead "I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Sinclair."

Keeping with Japanese custom, she gave her surname first. "Sinclair Alexandra."

She bowed politely. "Pleased to meet you."

"I'm Kikumaru Eiji, nya," exclaimed the red-head cheerfully, this time hanging off the newcomer's shoulders. "But you can call me Kiku-chan!" he assured her, holding one hand up in a peace sign.

"Ooishi Syuuichirou," offered his friend politely, attempting to bow with Eiji on his back. "I'm pleased to meet you, but I'm afraid we have to go. We're already late for class."

He dragged Eiji off to class, berating him for stopping to tease Kaidoh and worrying about the wrath of the teacher, who, as Eiji loudly pointed out, was probably even later than they were.

Alex stared after the two bemusedly, then returned her attention to Kaidoh, who quickly introduced himself. "We probably need to get to class too," she commented when he was done. Kaidoh scowled. Thanks to Eiji, he was now really late. He stalked through the corridors towards their destination without checking to see if Alex was following.

* * *

Alex and Kaidoh bowed to the teacher and apologized for being tardy. Sending Kaidoh to his seat, the teacher addressed Alex, berating her for being late on her first day, and warning her not to make it a habit. Finishing his lecture, the teacher introduced himself. "I'm Ishizuka-sensei, your homeroom teacher. I'll also be teaching you English," he said, doing his best to ignore the whispers as several fangirls speculated as to who the new-comer was and what, exactly, she had been doing with 'Kaidoh-kun'. "I already know who you are, but most of the class doesn't, so would you like to introduce yourself to everyone?" 

Despite the phrasing, it wasn't a request. "State your name, age, and where you transferred from."

Alex obeyed without protest. Going to the front of the classroom as Ishizuka-sensei indicated, she bowed to the class. "Hajimemashite," she said quietly, though still loud enough that everyone could hear her. "My name is Sinclair Alexandra. I'm 15 years old, and I recently moved to Japan from Australia. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."

She bowed again.

Moving towards the one empty seat in the room, she stopped abruptly when the teacher held her back. "Does anybody have any questions for Sinclair-san?" he asked the class.

Several girls put up their hands.

"Yes?" said Ishizuka-sensei, nodding at a random hand. The girl chosen put her hand down and stood up. "What were you doing with Kaidoh-kun!" she asked shrilly, as the other girls lowered their hands and nodded in agreement.

"Does anybody have any sensible questions?" Ishizuka-sensei asked the class exasperatedly before Alex had a chance to answer the question. "No?"

Ishizuka-sensei nodded to Alex. "You may sit down now."

Alex obediently went to her seat and began to prepare for class.

* * *

During lunch break, Kaidoh noticed that Alex was sitting in a corner, eating her lunch while reading what appeared to be an English novel. Girls flocked around her, seemingly intent on irritating the hell out of the new-comer. Most of them were repeating the earlier question regarding her business with Kaidoh, but were getting no reply. In fact, as Alex took a sip of her milk and turned a page, Kaidoh realized that she didn't seem to realize the other girls even existed. 

Curious about this strange achievement, Kaidoh made his way over to the group. Tuning out determinedly annoying girls was a skill he'd never quite managed to master, and he wanted to see how she did it.

Without looking up from her book, Alex spoke, surprising both him and the surrounding girls. "Kaidoh-san, is there a problem?"

If she hadn't just spoken, he would have sworn she didn't even know he was there. She continued to read, seeming as oblivious to the world as before, her eyes flickering rapidly across the pages. Several girls who had failed to notice his approach until she spoke swooned dramatically.

Kaidoh stared at her. How did she do it? Just in time, Kaidoh remembered that it would be impolite not to reply to her query. "No," he muttered. "There's no problem."

Alex marked her place in her book and closed the pages, giving him her full attention. "Very well. Since you're here though, you may as well have a seat."

She drew one out from the desk across from her and motioned for him to take it. Sitting down, Kaidoh eyed her warily. This girl made him nervous. She was like nothing he was used to. For one thing, she didn't seem at all scared of him.

One of the more obnoxious girls spoke, demanding to know why Alex had been ignoring them. Kaidoh hissed and glared at the girl, waiting until she backed away nervously before turning his glare on the remaining girls, who fled, scattering to various safe places in the room.

Alex watched quietly. "That's a useful talent," she remarked when he'd finally finished exterminating the pests. "I wish I could do that."

Kaidoh looked back at her, surprised. He opened his mouth to ask her how she managed to ignore them like she'd done, when a boy with spiky dark hair approached. "Hey mamushi, you got yourself a girlfriend now?" he asked loudly.

Kaidoh was on his feet in seconds. "Shut up, you idiot!" he hissed.

"Oh yeah?! Just try and make me, damn mamushi!" the other boy growled.

Alex watched impartially as the two rolled up their sleeves and yelled in each other's faces. Several people jumped on the two and quickly pulled them apart. Obviously the two didn't get on, and fights must be regular enough for the other boys in the class to become quite practiced at separating them.

Unfortunately, by the time Kaidoh had stopped raging about Momo's stupidity, the bell to mark the end of lunch break had rang and it was time to get back to taking notes.

* * *

Alex sighed and adjusted her spectacles, which had slowly begun to slip due to the gently swaying motion of the train she was on. It had been a long first day. She'd had no idea that Kaidoh-san had such a large following of fangirls. If she had, she might never have approached him for directions in the first place. Fangirls were a dangerous breed – like sharks. Alex had absolutely no desire to mess with them. 

They, however, seemed to have other ideas. It hadn't even been 24 hours and already Alex would be surprised if there was still an unbruised patch of skin anywhere on her body. And all just because she'd shown up late with Kaidoh-san. It seemed they were even more vicious than she'd given them credit for. It wasn't her fault she'd gotten lost on the first day.

Making a mental note to research the main fanclubs in the school and avoid both them and their idols like the plague, she quickly stepped off the train as the doors opened at her stop. She suspected she'd end up having to avoid about half the school, possibly more if today were any indication.

Exiting the train station, she strode along the street until she reached her mansion building. On her way up the flight of stairs it took to reach her apartment – the building didn't have an elevator – she rummaged in her satchel for her house keys. Not finding them on her way up, she stopped outside her apartment door and emptied the entire contents of the bag onto the floor, before finally finding the keys in the first place she'd looked.

Shoving everything haphazardly back into the bag, she unlocked the door and went inside, slamming it shut behind her. One of these days the neighbors would complain about that. Until then, though, she would continue doing it: it felt so good to take out her daily frustration on the solid piece of timber.

Slipping her shoes off in the genkan, she stepped onto the worn floorboards and into her almost empty apartment, dropping the chaotic schoolbag on the floor. Though designed to house a small family – it had two bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, and combined living/dining area – the place contained almost no furniture and no decoration to speak of. In fact, she didn't even have a television. But that was ok – she had a clock radio, and had never really been interested in TV.

Wandering through the living area past a large cage of mice, Alex stepped into her kitchen and put a pot of water on the stove to boil – after that hellish day, she really needed a soothing cup of tea.

While she waited for the water to boil, she went to her bedroom and opened a large glass enclosure, like a fish tank. Reaching in gently, she pulled out a huge olive python, which immediately coiled itself over her shoulders. "Hey, Monty. Did you miss me?" she greeted it softly. Monty – that was the python's name.

She stroked the snakes head gently, before moving her arm so he slid down onto the floor. He slithered away to somewhere in the apartment.

She had a quick shower, and by the time she got out the water on the stove was boiling. Rushing to the kitchen to take it off the heat, she then dressed into a pale lavender coloured kimono decorated with delicate pink sakura blossoms, wrapped around with a darker purple obi. The edges of a two inner kimono – one pale pink, the other cream – were visible around the neckline.

While she was pouring her tea, Monty returned from wherever he'd gone and resettled around her shoulders. She sat down on a cushion at her little table, and drank her tea quickly, taking the time to relax slightly before she had to go to work.

* * *

Yes… 

I heard about the rash of unkind reviews to the authors of OC fics a while ago… and decided I could do with some sort of entertainment. This is not usually the sort of thing I'd write – or even read, for that matter.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against OC fics – I just tend not to read them until I've been nagged to insanity by White Alchemist Taya.


	2. Fangirls and Arachnids

Disclaimer: I don't own Tennis no Oujisama.

* * *

**Fangirls and Arachnids**

* * *

Alex stared at the place where her bag had been, expression unreadable. It had only been a few days since she'd arrived at Seigaku High, and already she'd made an enemy of one of the school's minor fanclubs. They had since gone out of their way many countless times to cause her any sort of pain or trouble imaginable, and would not listen to reason. 

The main cause of this punishment was, it seemed, her growing friendship with their idol, Kaidoh Kaoru. She'd have been quite happy to avoid him after discovering the existence of his fangirls, but he'd seemed to have other ideas – she had no clue why. However, even though she didn't understand it, she wasn't about to question it – she valued friendship too much to refuse his just because of a few troublesome fangirls.

However, that wasn't the issue right now. At the moment, she had to focus on finding her bag and its contents – preferably before they were destroyed. With a sigh, she wandered off to begin the hunt.

* * *

Finding her bag in an extremely unoriginal garbage bin, Alex quickly fished it out. Done with her task, she reasoned that now might be a good time to find out all about any other fanclubs in the school so she could actively avoid them. It was a troublesome chore, but she'd put it off far too long as it was – any longer might be dangerous. 

Alex wandered off to the library, which had turned out to be the safest place in the school. It was possible that this might also be the best place in which to find out the information she needed. She would ask one of the people who regularly spent time holed up among the books – she might have asked Kaidoh, but he seemed understandably reluctant to talk about the school's fanclubs.

Searching along the wonderfully musty-smelling rows of books, she finally found a likely-looking person, and asked about the fanclubs. The girl looked up from the book she was reading.

"You're the girl who was with Kaidoh-san the other day," she observed.

"Yes," agreed Alex.

Apparently, she'd asked the right person, because the other girl was able to give her more than enough information. It seemed she'd have to avoid the entire male tennis team, especially Tezuka and Fuji, as well as a couple of people from the Kendo club. Unfortunately, it also turned out that most of the girls in the school – and a few boys too – were in one fanclub or another. If this girl's information were correct, that meant that only 27 girls in the whole school were truly safe to deal with, along with about half the guys.

She came away with a list of names and photographs – one pile for people who were safe, and the other for those to avoid at all costs. Unfortunately, she suspected she'd already got on the bad side of quite a few of the people in that pile. She was in for a lot of trouble.

* * *

With a sigh, Alex sank into her seat. Her errand had taken far longer than she'd hoped it would, and as a result she had not had time to eat lunch. Now she would have to somehow survive the rest of the day, a task which was usually stressful enough without an empty stomach added into the equation. 

Opening her school bag and reaching into it without looking, she bit back a gasp as she felt a painful prick on her wrist. Looking into the bag to see what had scratched her, she was not amused to discover a large and very angry scorpion eyeballing her from the deep, dark recess of a cavity between her books. The barbed tip of its tail hovered menacingly over its head. Its message was very clear: "Mess with me," it seemed to say "and I'll make sure you regret it."

Steeling herself, she scooped the furious arachnid out of its crevice. Holding the creature by its tail, she wandered casually towards the teacher. The poor man, sure that more trouble was approaching, scowled in frustration at the approaching girl. His expression quickly changed however, eyes widening in shock as his mind finally registered what his eyes insisted they saw.

Alex held the scorpion gently as she stopped in front of the teacher. "Excuse me, Ishizuka-sensei," she said quietly, waiting for him to focus on her before continuing. "May I go to the health room?"

The poor teacher got the distinct impression that if permission were denied, she would obey without question. The scorpion had to be a fake! There was no way otherwise that a normal girl would be so calm while handling such a creature.

Utterly convinced by his own logic, he moved to poke the scorpion, pulling his hand back in a panic as the creature, obviously very much alive, chose that moment to try and wriggle out of the strangely calm girl's grasp.

Gulping nervously, the teacher nodded. "Y-yes!" he stuttered. "Of course!"

A part of him noticed with shame that his voice squeaked slightly. Clearing his throat, he pointed randomly at Kaidoh, ordering him to accompany Alex to the nurse immediately.

Kaidoh turned pale as he noticed the scorpion, hissing at her to keep it away from him, but obeyed the teacher's order to escort Alex to the nurse's office.

Following her out of the classroom, he noticed a few glistening beads of sweat on her forehead. He was confused. Alex just didn't sweat. Unless – was she scared? Kaidoh looked more closely at the girl. She didn't appear to be scared. She wasn't even acting any different from the way she normally did. Actually, Kaidoh found that kinda creepy. Normal girls should scream. Or something. Actually, Kaidoh wasn't at all sure what normal girls did, but he was pretty sure this wasn't it.

Alex's breathing became increasingly ragged as they neared their destination. She was in a lot of pain, and was beginning to feel dizzy – a scorpion's venom is neurotoxic; attacking the central nervous system.

As they turned into the corridor for the nurse's office, her brain finally gave up the fight. She collapsed against Kaidoh, dropping the scorpion as she passed out. As the creature made to scuttle away, Kaidoh, bracing an unconscious Alex against him, brought his foot down on the little arachnid, squishing it flat. Its guts oozed out through cracks in its shell as Kaidoh carefully reached down and pulled its stinger from the thick rubber sole of his shoe. He knew Alex had probably wanted to let it live, but frankly he thought it was an evil little creature for stinging Alex and couldn't care less what happened to it. He had an intense feeling of satisfaction, however, from squishing it.

Abandoning the flattened remains, he lifted Alex and carried her the rest of the way to the nurse's office. Her head rested gently upon his shoulder as he carried her.

Within minutes, an ambulance had been summoned, and Alex, now convulsing violently, was on her way to the nearest hospital.

* * *

Ok, regarding the scorpion – I did a quick google search on them, found out that their venom is neurotoxic, and couldn't be bothered researching further. I retreated into my head for these symptoms – the sheer amount of utterly useless knowledge in there is amazing. 

The actual list comes from a barely remembered song by Alice Cooper – 'Black Widow'. In the song, he lists the symptoms of the neurotoxic black widow bite as "intense pain, profuse sweating, difficulty in breathing, loss of consciousness, violent convulsions and finally, er, death". I think that's how it goes, anyway…


	3. Not a girlfriend

Disclaimer: I don't own Tennis no Oujisama.

* * *

**Not a girlfriend ****

* * *

**

Kaidoh shifted uncomfortably in the small chair the hospital had provided for use by visitors. He had been waiting for hours, the chair was hard as hell, and his butt was killing him. Needless to say, he was not happy. However, he was determined to wait until Alex woke up. All the forces on earth could not shift him from that spot until he'd done what he came to do and apologised. Tezuka-buchou would in all probability make him run in circles until he dropped for skipping practise, but Kaidoh felt responsible for what his fanclub had done. His firm sense of honour demanded that he apologise for their actions.

Kaidoh abruptly straightened in his seat as he noticed the girl's eyes flickering open. Without hesitation, he launched into a long string of sincere apologies.

Alex regarded him with groggy eyes. She was still feeling the after-effects of the scorpion's venom, and didn't have a clue why Kaidoh was apologising so profusely to her. However, the snake didn't seem to need any input on her part, so she quickly tuned him out, to focus instead on throwing off the groggy feeling that swamped her brain, forcing herself through pure determination into a state in which she could think clearly. This done, she waited patiently until Kaidoh paused to take a breath, taking the opportunity this short lull in the storm of words presented to assure him she was fine.

Kaidoh, however, was on a roll, and continued ranting his apologies for several minutes before her comment finally registered in his rather focused mind.

The poor boy stopped mid-rant and blinked at her rather stupidly. Some part of his sadly overworked mind screamed that this wasn't how it was supposed to go. Wasn't she supposed to cry, or yell, or something? But she didn't care. It wasn't that she wanted to die, it was just… now it was over, she didn't seem to care what had happened. Did nothing faze her?! Kaidoh really didn't understand it, and right now he wasn't sure he wanted to. Thankfully though, he was distracted from his confusion by the arrival of several unfortunately all-too-familiar people.

"Hoi hoi! I told you he'd be visiting his girlfriend, nya!" crowed a triumphant Eiji in a cheerful 'I-told-you-so' tone.

"Fshuu! She's not my girlfriend, senpai!"

Kaidoh was blushing again, scowling furiously at the cheerful red-head at the same time.

Eiji ignored his protests, dancing around as the other regulars questioned the about-to-explode mamushi about this 'girlfriend', completely ignoring Alex in the process. Which was, in fact, fine by her.

Looking down at the hospital gown she was wearing, she decided it was time to get changed. As she made to climb out of the bed, the gown, which hadn't been tied, slipped down on one shoulder and fell open at the back. Alex didn't notice. But everyone else did. There was a sudden embarrassed silence in the room, as everybody tried his hardest not to stare at the expanse of skin which had been revealed, some admittedly trying harder than others. Momo, for one, was barely trying at all. He leered at the girl, silently willing the garment to fall open just a little bit more. Sadly, he was disappointed when Alex straightened, the gown falling back into place.

Alex glanced at them curiously, wondering slightly about the sudden silence and the stunned look on their faces. Shrugging slightly, she dismissed it as unimportant and stooped to grab her clothes. Momo started leering again as the gown fell open for a second once more. As the gown slipped even further, threatening to expose everything, Momo felt a stirring in his lower regions in response to the lecherous thoughts currently occupying most of his mind.

Looking around quickly for something to keep the attention away from himself, he noticed that Kaidoh was, for some reason, developing a similar problem. He promptly decided to draw attention to that.

"You got a problem, mamushi?" he drawled knowingly.

Kaidoh hissed at him. "Oh yeah?" he yelled "What about yourself, you idiot!"

Momo turned red as an overripe tomato and desperately tried to cover the problem area from sight. His plan had seriously backfired. And as far as he was concerned, it was that damn mamushi's fault.

The two promptly commenced shouting at each other.

Alex stared at them bemusedly. This was a hospital – shouting like that was impolite. She wasn't naïve. She knew without doubt what the 'problem' the two were referring to was. And while she'd usually ignore it, they were being extremely loud.

She raised her voice. "Excuse me, but would you two take care of your 'problem' elsewhere?" she enquired. "Find a bathroom or something."

A thought occurred to her. "Separate bathrooms," she stressed. It wouldn't do for them to destroy the hospital's facilities. "On opposite sides of the hospital, please."

A shocked silence sounded in the room. Heads swivelled, looking from the fight, which had stopped through some mutual agreement – the only thing they'd probably ever agree on – to Alex, who stared calmly straight back at them. "Go, please" she ordered, pointing to the door. Momo and Kaidoh, stunned into temporary obedience, slunk in the direction she indicated, discreetly growling at each other. Neither of them were comfortable with being told to go jerk off by a girl. Particularly one they'd been caught staring at.

Alex couldn't get out of hospital fast enough. As soon as she was dressed, she requested the paperwork she had to sign so she could leave. She hated hospitals with a passion. They were just so… clean. They were so set on killing all the germs, that they'd almost managed to turn the area into a biological disaster zone. Every time Alex went into a hospital, she left feeling sicker than she had been when she entered the building. And that was just from the cocktail of chemicals the cleaners used. Alex liked to keep things clean at home – but hospitals went straight through cleanliness and out the other side. Possibly to paranoia.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the papers arrived. Alex quickly filled out the forms, declined the regulars' offer of an escort home to make sure she got there safely – she really wasn't sure she wanted them knowing where she lived – and was soon on the next train home. If she was lucky, she'd only be about an hour late for work.

* * *

Alex hurried to answer the knock that sounded on her apartment door some days later. Wondering slightly who it was – she wasn't expecting any visitors – she pulled it open. She was startled to see Tezuka Kunimitsu standing patiently on her doorstep. 

"Sinclair-san" he greeted her tersely.

Alex bowed slightly. "Tezuka-senpai, I am honoured. You do realise that if you are seen here, your fangirls will kill me?" she enquired politely.

Tezuka ignored her comment. "May I talk with you?" he asked sternly. "Inside," he added pointedly.

"Of course," Alex replied reluctantly, opening the door a little wider to allow Tezuka access to the genkan. She'd much rather slam the door in his face – she had a terrible premonition regarding this meeting – but that would be unacceptably rude.

Inviting him to sit, she offered him a cup of tea, which he refused. Waiting until she knealt down at the little table, he got straight to the point. "Kaidoh's level of concentration has decreased drastically since your interference. I request that you cease contact with him."

Alex stared coolly at him. "No," she replied flatly. "I'm sorry, but I can't do that."

The flat-out 'no' was unexpected. Even so, Tezuka was prepared for the possibility. He briefly outlined the recent mistakes Kaidoh had made on the courts that should never have occurred.

The tension thickened as both sides debated politely what was best.

"Females like you create excessive noise, disrupting practise on the courts, and should not be permitted in the vicinity of competing regulars," Tezuka ended with his arms sternly crossed.

Interesting, thought Alex. So fangirls got under the stoic buchou's skin. Alex filed the information away in her head and closed her eyes, trying to think of the best way to address this accusation.

There was silence for a while, then Alex, eyes still closed, spoke. "Your dislike of the screaming of fangirls is understandable," she spoke slowly, weighing each word before it was uttered. It would not do to cause offence to her senpai. "However, I assure you I would never consciously be so disruptive. I apologise if I do have something to do with Kaidoh-san's apparent distraction, but at the same time I think it extremely unlikely."

"Nevertheless, I must ask you to stay away from Kaidoh"

"And if something goes wrong?" Alex returned calmly. "Forgive me, but I am reluctant to risk a valued friendship on such a gamble as you propose."

"I believe this would be in Kaidoh's best interests," Tezuka asserted. "However, if something does go wrong, you have my word that I will personally take full responsibility for the outcome."

Alex opened her eyes to examine the buchou's sternly serious face for a moment, then nodded almost imperceptibly. "Very well."

The buchou nodded his approval of her decision and stood. He bowed as she showed him to the door.

"Shitsurei shimashita," were the last stern words he spoke before turning away.

* * *

Yeah, about the hospital thing… I really, really hate hospitals. I simply cannot write about them in an unbiased way – I'm afraid I got a little carried away there. I sincerely apologise if it dominates the story somewhat. And also, don't criticise the hospital gown. I know it's unrealistic. I don't care. It's there for entertainment, and simply because I felt like it. 


	4. Icecream solves everything

Disclaimer: I don't own Tennis no Oujisama.

* * *

**Ice-cream solves everything**

* * *

Alex found it harder than she'd thought it would be to avoid Kaidoh. She didn't want to insult him by openly telling him to stay away, so she instead had to make sure she was consistently anywhere Kaidoh was not. It was a lot of trouble, but even in the brief time she'd known him, she'd learned that tennis was important to Kaidoh. If he was having problems, she'd do anything in her power to fix it. 

After a few days of this, Alex found herself approached by Inui. In a very round-about way containing a large multitude of figures and data, he informed her that there had been no change in Kaidoh's level of concentration. He recommended that she flirt with Momo, Kaidoh's long-time rival.

Alex stared at him as if he were crazy. "No," she said flatly. "I do not flirt."

Distaste dripped from her mouth like poison as she uttered the hateful word.

Inui adjusted his spectacles. Didn't all girls flirt? According to the data he'd collected so far, girls were born with an inbuilt ability to flirt without shame. Was it possible his data was wrong? It seemed he would have to revise this matter.

His thoughts were interrupted by Alex's exasperated sigh. "Tell you what," she compromised "I'll talk with Momo-san a few time, make sure Kaidoh-san notices, will that be enough?"

Inui nodded slowly. "If you're sure you can't flirt…"

"Quite sure," she interrupted firmly.

Inui nodded before slipping away to investigate the apparent flaw in his data.

* * *

Momo grinned triumphantly. He'd heard that Kaidoh's girlfriend had been ignoring him, and though he didn't know why, she was now here talking to him! Score 15-0 to Momo! She must have finally succumbed to his irresistible charm! 

Encouraged by the girl's apparent interest in him, Momo then proceeded to preen and pose confidently. Alex inwardly sweatdropped, but remained careful to keep her face bland.

Momo, chatting avidly, glanced over Alex's shoulder and spotted Kaidoh staring at them. A smug grin spread itself across his face as he formed his hand in the 'peace' sign for Kaidoh's benefit.

Kaidoh turned red with fury and, hissing loudly, stomped away.

Alex quietly pretended not to have noticed the exchange between the two and politely continued her conversation with Momo, though she privately thought that Kaidoh had overreacted, just a little.

* * *

Alex repacked her bag in readiness to go home. Her movements were unhurried – unlike most of her class, she did not attend a club, or extra classes of any kind, and so could take her time in leaving the classroom. 

Heaving the heavy bag onto one shoulder, she slowly trailed out of the classroom, doing her best to avoid the bell-time rush.

Wandering outside, she was just about to leave the school grounds when she was accosted by a red-faced, sweaty, and desperately panting for air guy, whom she vaguely recognised as being in her grade, though not in her class.

"Buchou," he began, leaning his hands on his knees and trying to speak between pants. After a moment he tried again. "Buchou says to come to the tennis courts."

Recovering slightly, he grabbed the girl's arm and began to drag her to 'buchou'.

"Hurry up!" he yelled desperately, his voice squeaking with fear. Apparently, Tezuka had been stern enough to make the boy mortally afraid of what would happen if he were too slow. Tezuka's reputation had preceded him – the thumb-screws and lead weights in strange places gossip had added to Tezuka's punishments had gone down in high school tennis legend. The fact that no thumb-screws had yet been seen had not deterred the rumours in the slightest, and some of the regulars had developed a somewhat disturbing tendency to encourage some of the wilder rumours whenever possible. It was suspected that the dark mind behind the thumb-screws rumour belonged to none other than one Fuji Syusuke, though when asked about it he merely smiled serenely and changed the subject.

Alex finally managed to extricate her arm from the boy's grasp as they neared the courts. Tezuka, Inui and Fuji stood in the centre of the courts, watching Kaidoh's practise match against another regular. All three of them stared with blank expressions as Kaidoh lunged towards a shot that Sakuno could have hit, and missed, his racquet slipping out of his fingers and hitting the umpire's chair, where it shattered. Even Inui's pen was frozen against his ever-present notebook.

Tezuka turned towards them as he noticed their approach. "Sinclair-san," he greeted her sternly. Her escort made a panicked sound and fled.

Inui unfroze and started scribbling again, muttering something about the 23 times Kaidoh had dropped his racquet in that one match before it finally broke.

Tezuka ignored him, instead returning his attention to the afflicted mamushi.

"Kaidoh," he yelled, summoning the other boy. Kaidoh hissed, and stalked reluctantly over to the buchou. He failed to notice Alex, who was talking with Fuji – Inui and his notebook were standing between him and the girl.

Momo, however, had a clear line of vision. "Fuji's with mamushi's girlfriend!" he crowed, smirking with glee. Fuji had been explaining to Alex why she had been summoned, and Momo had deliberately misinterpreted the situation. "Hey Mamushi!" he called "Looks like your girlfriend don't want you no more!"

Kaidoh, very predictably, turned red and hissed furiously, telling Momo to "Shut up, idiot!"

OIshi hurried over to investigate the cause of the commotion. Eiji bounced along behind him.

Seeing Alex, Oishi immediately realised the problem. He put a hand on Tezuka's shoulder. "Tezuka, let me handle this."

Tezuka nodded.

Kaidoh scowled at them. "If you're going to drop me from the regulars, hurry up and do it," he muttered

"We're not going to do that," Oishi assured him quickly. Kaidoh hissed at him, sure that he was lying.

"Um…" Now that he had volunteered, Oishi realised he had no clue how to continue. "We thought that Sinclair-san might be the cause of your recent distraction, so we… heh… asked her to stay away for a while…"

He trailed off, sensing that this information wasn't going to go down very well at all.

"What?!" Kaidoh was livid.

"We're sorry! We were trying to help!" Oishi was about to panic. Kaidoh ignored him, instead turning on Alex. "Why the hell did you go along with their stupidity?!"

Alex shrugged apologetically. "They said it would help," she replied.

Kaidoh hissed. "And you believed them?!" He didn't really expect an answer. He likened what he'd just been told to the phrase 'for your own good'. Needless to say, this phrase never went down very well at all.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I know you're upset," she said, uttering the understatement of the century "but we were trying to help you. Tennis is your life, isn't it? They had some crazy idea that I was a distraction."

It was obvious from her tone that she had never really believed it.

Kaidoh turned and glared at his fellow regulars.

Oishi scratched the back of his head nervously. "If it helps…" he pointed out hesitantly "I think it took two hours for Tezuka to convince her…" he once again trailed off and shut up as Kaidoh concentrated his glare on him.

Tezuka decided enough was enough. He glanced at the people standing around idly and sternly ordered them to get back to practise. There was a flurry of activity as everyone tried to pretend they had actually been doing that all along.

The regulars drifted reluctantly away from their entertainment before they were forced to run laps. Eiji leapt onto Kaidoh's shoulders. "Hoi hoi! Don't hurt Alex-chan, nya! She was being nice!"

With a flash of a 'peace' sign and a single 'bui', he bounced away. Kaidoh hissed after him.

"Are you angry?" Alex asked him calmly when Eiji was gone.

"No," Kaidoh hissed his denial, somehow managing to sound absolutely furious – an impression which wasn't helped by the fact that he was still glaring menacingly at his fellow regulars.

"You look like you are," she pointed out.

Kaidoh hissed one last time and tore his attention away from his team-mates, schooling his face into a slightly more agreeable scowl. "I'm not," he insisted.

Alex seemed to accept this.

In reality, Kaidoh was angry – just not at Alex. He could more or less understand the slightly twisted logic behind Alex's participation in this whacked-out scheme. What he couldn't understand, was how his team-mates could just mess with his life like that, and when their plan failed so spectacularly, just shrug their shoulders and practically tell him it was for his own good. Now that made him mad! 'For your own good'. A phrase which seemed designed to irritate the hell out of almost anybody. And it irritated Kaidoh slightly more than most.

Eiji chose, just at that moment when Kaidoh was most irritated, to come bounding back. "Hurry up and apologize so we can practise, nya!" he yelled.

This was the last straw. With a furious hiss, Kaidoh stalked off. Alex followed him. "Where are you going?"

"Away" came the growled reply.

"What about practice?"

Kaidoh hissed in the general direction of the tennis courts, which were already out of sight. "Fuck it," he muttered with feeling, a highly uncharacteristic reply which clearly demonstrated just how pissed off he was.

Alex followed him uncomfortably as he continued to stalk away. She hadn't anticipated his being quite this angry, and was at a loss as to what she should do about it. She noticed that Kaidoh had begun muttering furiously under his breath. She decided to head off the impending explosion in the only way she could think of.

"Let's go get some ice-cream," she suggested.

"What?" Kaidoh had been so busy with his muttering that he hadn't heard what she'd said. He stopped in his tracks and turned to face her.

Alex sighed and repeated herself.

Kaidoh looked at her blankly. Ice-cream? Why, of all possible things, would she suggest ice-cream? What he really wanted right now was to whoop all their asses with a tennis racquet! Unfortunately, though, Alex's suggestion had been so unexpected as to have thrown him off entirely. He gave one last half-hearted hiss before reluctantly giving it up. "Sure" he muttered. "Ice-cream…"

He followed Alex to a nearby café, where she promptly ordered two of the largest sundaes he'd ever seen, announcing that it was her treat. He stared at his in shock. He'd thought only Eiji, Echizen, and that idiot Momoshiro could ever hope to conquer one of these. He glanced at Alex, who was happily digging into her ice-cream. "Are you going to eat that?" she asked, gesturing with her spoon towards his sundae. "Because if you don't want it, I'll have it"

Kaidoh had to work to stop his jaw dropping. She couldn't be serious! Even the bottomless pit known commonly as Momoshiro had been sick after one and a half!

Staring at his formidable monster of a sundae, he raised his spoon and hesitantly poked it. When it reassuringly failed to rear up out of what must, for practical purposes, be called its cup, and swallow him whole, he scooped up a small dollop of the stuff – which to his disgust fairly oozed with chocolate sauce – and transported it to his mouth. Upon discovering that it wasn't nearly so bad as he'd feared, he scooped up another spoonful with slightly more enthusiasm.

Alex, satisfied, went back to her own dessert.

Silence reigned between the two as each focused on demolishing their own tower of ice-cream – not the awkward kind, but the sort of comfortable, familiar silence which happens ever-so-rarely in today's constantly busy world.

The silence shattered as Kaidoh hesitantly cleared his throat. Alex, scooping the last melted bits of ice-cream from the sides of her cup, looked at him enquiringly.

"Um… Sinclair-san…" he began, a slightly pink tinge tainting his cheeks. "Will you… go out with me?"

Alex froze. "I beg your pardon?" she asked finally, trying to confirm that she hadn't just heard what she was sure she had.

"You heard me," Kaidoh muttered, blushing slightly redder and cursing himself for apparently having just made the biggest mistake of his life.

Alex closed her eyes with a sigh. Why did people always want more than you were willing to give? Friendship was wonderful, but in her opinion, anything else was completely unnecessary, and likely to lead to hurt on the part of all involved.

Still with her eyes closed, she opened her mouth to utter an extremely apologetic negative. Her eyes flicked open with shock as she heard her mouth, seemingly with no input from her brain – nor, indeed, any other part of her -, utter a single word. _'Why?'_ she thought, stunned, finding no clue as to her motives for voicing a single, unexpected phrase of agreement.

Damn traitor mouth…

* * *

About the ice-cream. Trust me, in Japan it is possible to find ice-cream sundaes that tower over one's head when placed on the table. You just have to know where to look. 

I saw it on TV, along with a niku-man weighing two kilos, and other giant meals. It was in colour, so it must be true.


	5. Atobe the Great

Disclaimer: I don't own Tennis no Oujisama.

* * *

**Atobe the Great**

* * *

Alex quickly ran a comb through her damp hair, and deftly tied it back in a long braid which trailed down her back. 

She had been surprised to find herself looking forward to her date with Kaidoh – she still thought he could do better. But she'd put her doubts aside, taken time off work, and made up her mind to enjoy the evening. Que sera sera. That was to be her motto for tonight.

It was a fairly warm spring night, so, selecting a pretty red dress of thin cotton which clung to her body just enough look attractive and conveniently didn't reveal too much skin, she pulled it on and sat down to do her homework while she waited for Kaidoh to arrive.

Monty curled comfortably around her shoulders, staring at the calculus book with about as much knowledge of its contents as Alex herself. She was in the top maths class, Kami-sama knew how, and failing rapidly. Maybe she could trick her mind into understanding the course in the fifteen or so minutes before Kaidoh was due to arrive.

* * *

­Kaidoh stood nervously in front of the apartment door. He hoped he'd found the right place – successfully finding a particular address in Tokyo required a strange twist to the mind. Taking a deep breath and straightening his tie, he raised a hand and knocked three times on the wooden surface of the door. Then he waited. 

He was just raising a hand to try again when he heard footsteps from behind the door. He took a nervous step back as Alex pulled it open.

"Sorry for taking so long," she apologized.

Kaidoh gulped, and quickly tore his eyes away from the hint of cleavage that would have been exposed if the neckline of the dress were just a tad lower. And did a double-take.

"A… scarf?" He hazarded a guess. He couldn't possibly be seeing what he otherwise would have sworn he was. Alex looked down to see what he meant.

"Oh," she realised. "Kaidoh-san, this is Monty."

She stroked the smooth scales affectionately. "Monty is an Olive Python."

"I… see."

Kaidoh stared at the snake for a second then, without thinking, moved a hand towards it.

Monty's head twisted to follow the trajectory of the hand moving towards him. When it got close enough, the snake wrapped itself around Kaidoh's arm and slithered forward, hissing warningly in his face.

Kaidoh grinned. He'd always had a soft spot for animals.

Alex pulled the door wider. "Please, come in," she suggested. "I have to put Monty to bed."

Kaidoh followed her inside, tickling an appeased and very contented Monty under the chin. "Why do you have a snake?" he asked curiously, continuing his tickling. If snakes could purr, Monty gave the impression that he would have easily rivaled any cat at that moment.

"I like snakes," Alex replied absently, lifting Monty from Kaidoh's arm. Monty stretched out his neck in an attempt to prolong contact with that tickling finger. Noticing this, she added "Besides, Monty's special."

"What do you mean, 'special'?" Kaidoh wanted to know.

"I mean he's special."

Alex saw no need to elaborate. She gently placed Monty in his enclosure, putting the lid on after him. Making sure it was secure, she turned to Kaidoh. She gestured towards the door.

"After you," she said with a smile.

* * *

Alex glanced discreetly around the restaurant as she delicately thrust her fork into her fettuccini. She felt rather uncomfortable with Kaidoh's choice of restaurant, and while she hadn't mentioned the expense he was going to, she had made sure to choose the cheapest meal on the menu. She'd offer to pay half, but was afraid to offend her date. 

Alex twirled the pasta onto her fork as she noticed a boy just slightly older than herself posing flamboyantly in the doorway. One of the waitresses hurried towards him. Alex observed as the woman attempted to show him to a table. The boy adopted an extremely haughty expression and said something to her, obviously a refusal to move.

Alex admired the way the woman refrained from letting her irritation show on her face. She murmured something to him, but he still refused to move.

Finally, after a short, hurried discussion, the woman gave up. Turning, she hurried away, stopping in front of Alex's table.

"What an arrogant bastard," she muttered, her professional façade slipping. "Look, Alex-chan, I'm really sorry – I told that jerk it's your day off – but he says he won't let anyone else serve him!"

Alex nodded in understanding as Kaidoh stared at them, wondering what in the world was going on. "It's ok, Kimi-san, I'm sure it won't take long."

She stood up. Kaidoh grabbed her arm to get her attention. "What's she talking about?" he asked, referring to the woman.

Alex nodded in the general direction of the 'arrogant bastard'. "I won't be long," she said, removing his hand from her arm. "I'll just make sure this gentleman is served, then I'll be right back."

"You work here?" Kaidoh sounded astounded. He looked in the direction she'd indicated and scowled. "Atobe," he muttered.

Alex looked surprised. "You know him?"

Kaidoh rolled his eyes. "'Ore-sama is greater than the universe itself'," he announced, in a passable imitation of Atobe. "Better get it over with then, before he actually lowers himself to finding his own table," he added in a derisive mutter, resigning himself to the total annihilation of his date. Alex nodded in agreement and hurried off.

Atobe greeted her with his own unique version of 'took you long enough', spurting something about the honour it was to serve 'the great ore-sama'.

Alex refrained from rolling her eyes as she steered him to an empty table. His hulking, simple-minded companion followed him like a giant drone, occasionally uttering a decisive 'usu' in response to Atobe's unceasing stream of good-naturedly arrogant comments.

Making sure that they had a table that passed Atobe's extremely high standards, she took their order and relayed it to the kitchen.

Returning to Kaidoh, she then tried to finish her own rapidly cooling meal. She found herself being grilled by Kaidoh as to why, exactly, she hadn't told him that she worked there.

"You didn't ask," Alex replied calmly between mouthfuls.

Kaidoh hissed his annoyance at her answer.

Alex noticed Kimi signaling to her, and chose to ignore the hiss in favour of getting up to serve Atobe's order.

Collecting the plates, she carried them over to Atobe and set them on the table. Turning to leave, she was forced out of politeness to stop when Atobe spoke.

"Ore-sama has decided. You will receive the honour of accompanying ore-sama to the prestigious function scheduled for next week."

Politeness be damned. "I'm a waitress, not an escort." came Alex's calm reply.

Atobe looked miffed. "Ore-sama does not hire prostitutes," he informed her in a scathing tone. After a brief pause, he continued. "Ore-sama's people will come for you next Saturday at 3pm."

Alex put her hands on her hips. "I have a boyfriend," she stated, willing to say anything in order to deter him.

"You would turn down a date with the great ore-sama?" Atobe looked scandalized.

"Yes," she said firmly. Atobe pretended not to hear her. Either that, or he had got selective hearing down to an art form. He continued as though she had said nothing, soliloquising at such length about his greatness, making it so impossible for her to even get a word in edgeways, that she was finally driven to the verge to giving up. She glanced discreetly at Kaidoh, who had edged closer during Atobe's little solo drama performance, and was now able to hear what was happening.

With a disgusted scowl of annoyance on his face, he signalled to Alex to just say she'd go with Atobe so that, just maybe, the arrogant, purple-haired idiot would shut up.

Alex returned her attention to Atobe and nodded her defeat. "Very well. I'll go"

Atobe continued, apparently so carried away by his own greatness that he didn't even notice she'd spoken. Realising that there was no other way to get his attention, she waved a hand exasperatedly in front of his face.

When he finally blinked at her, wondering why she had the nerve to interrupt his greatness, she waited for a second to be sure of his silence, and then patiently informed him that she'd already said she'd go.

With a visible effort, Atobe pulled himself together. Wiping the stupefied expression off his perfect face, he drew himself up haughtily and proudly announced "Of course you are. Ore-sama had decreed it."

He made to sweep grandly out of the restaurant, changed his mind halfway through as he remembered about his untouched meal, and skilfully changed the motion, instead settling elegantly into his seat.

Alex looked thoughtful. Atobe's arrogance, she was now coming to suspect, was merely a means of covering up his true self.

Maybe there was more to this boy than just money and a giant, all-consuming ego…

* * *

Kaidoh hissed quietly as he and Alex neared her apartment, his mind plagued by scenes from what seemed like every single sappy romance movie he'd ever seen. He was feeling a distinct pressure to be as smooth as the heroes of those movies, and knew with dread certainty that he would never be able to pull it off. To make things worse, he had the distinct, creepy feeling that something was following them. 

They stopped in front of Alex's front door. Kaidoh straightened his tie, a blush tainting his cheeks as he once again hissed nervously. This was the part where he was supposed to – Kaidoh's mind rebelled, self-preservation finally winning out against romance. Panicking, he made a sudden, almost reflexive bow, Alex stepping hastily back just in time to save them both the embarrassment of his burying his head in her chest.

"Goodnight!" he muttered, hissing. He straightened just as quickly as he had bowed, and attempted to make his escape. About to start running, he froze when he heard a familiar shout.

"Hoi hoi!" Eiji yelled, scowling as through Kaidoh had personally offended him. He jumped in front of the startled mamushi, cutting off his escape. "It's not 'goodnight'!" he informed a stunned Kaidoh, waving a disapproving finger in his face. "It's 'chu'!"

Kaidoh stared at the miffed acrobat, slack-jawed, before his mind finally decided to listen to the news-flash. Putting two and two together, he hissed furiously.

Eiji froze, realising suddenly that he'd just blown his cover. "Nya?" he mewed, forgetting about the finger still hovering somewhere in the vicinity of Kaidoh's nose as he made a desperate attempt at self-preservation, spontaneously trying to imitate a cute, innocent little kitty-cat.

Alex shut her eyes, exasperated, as Kaidoh desperately tried to think of the worst thing he could possibly do to this stalker, the cat impersonation obviously not having done the job.

Still undecided, but leaning towards murder, he glared, hissing, at Eiji.

Upon receiving the murderous look, Eiji panicked. "Oishi, save me, nya!" he yelled, diving around a corner.

There was a tremendous crash, and several nosy tennis players fell in a pile, revealed to all. Eiji landed on top of the pile, and quickly burrowed under Oishi with a fearful 'nya'.

"We're not here!" Momo announced, jumping out of the pile and desperately attempting to become one with the scenery.

A sullen "Mada mada dane" sounded from the bottom of the pile. Upon hearing this, Kaidoh hissed again. "Echizen too?!" His tone of voice successfully conveyed Kaidoh's disbelief that such a level of idiocy as had just been displayed could possibly exist.

Echizen Ryoma sat up, pushing his senpai off him. Reaching up to tug at his hat, he frowned when he realised it wasn't there. Inui, who had somehow escaped becoming part of the pileup, reached under a stunned player and pulled out the cap, handing it to Ryoma.

Alex watched impassively. Slowly, the pile untangled themselves. Eiji, forgetting his fear, jumped onto Oishi's shoulders. "Hoi! You have to kiss her, remember!" he announced, grinning mischievously. Momo immediately abandoned his imitation of scenery and wolf-whistled provocatively.

This was the last straw for Kaidoh. Hissing furiously, he took a single, menacing step towards his adversary.

Alex quickly grabbed his arm. Opening her door, she quickly tugged him through it and slammed the door behind them.

"I don't need a murder on my doorstep," she informed Kaidoh quietly, bolting the door. Kaidoh scowled. "I wasn't going to kill them," he muttered.

Alex looked at him.

"Ok… maybe I might have maimed them a little…" he hissed guiltily.

Alex nodded, bending to take off her sandals. "There's a pipe you might be able to shimmy down outside the kitchen window," she informed him.

Ushering him towards said exit, she ignored the scowl he shot towards the front door, instead opening the window.

Kaidoh gave one last hiss in the direction of the front door, then moved to climb out the window. Spur of the moment, he gave Alex a quick, clumsy kiss, then, avoiding her gaze as a persistent blush spread across his cheeks, reached for the pipe and, praying that it would hold his weight, quickly climbed down.

Alex watched until he was out of sight, relieved that 'data-man' Inui had apparently forgotten about the possibility of another exit.

* * *

An hour later, Alex, upon opening her door in order to take out the trash, was surprised to find the group of boys still guarding her doorstep, waiting, it seemed, for Kaidoh to emerge. 

Inui, glasses glinting evilly and data notebook at the ready, accosted her.

"Kaidoh cannot hide in there all night" he stated, in data-mode drone. "There is a 98 percent chance that his parents expect him home at a reasonable hour,"

"Of course he can't," Alex agreed readily "He left an hour ago."

Inui frowned and pushed up his glasses. "I must confirm this."

Without waiting for permission, he pushed past Alex, entering the apartment. The others followed him.

Alex looked disapproving. "I'm afraid I must ask you all to leave," she said sternly, trying to block their entrance into her apartment. All of them ignored her, with the exception of Inui, who muttered something about the predominant data indicating that she was indeed hiding Kaidoh.

Alex's pleas for them to leave became increasingly desperate as the boys proceeded to comb her small apartment – Momo even 'looking for Kaidoh' in her refrigerator.

Finally, as Inui reached to open the door to the last closed room, it seemed she'd had enough. With strength born from desperation, she lunged, punching Inui square in the face, knocking him down.

Panting, she stood over him and glared at them all. "I asked you to leave," she reminded them, trying to calm her voice. "Get out."

Inui climbed to his feet. "There is a 100 percent chance that she means it," he concluded analytically, gingerly touching his jaw in an attempt to assess the damage. He turned to leave, convincing the others with his glinting stare to follow his example.

The boys trailed towards the front door.

At the last second, Eiji broke away from the group. Diving around Alex, he bounded back up the way they'd come. With a gleeful "Hoi hoi!" his fingers curled around the door handle. Alex raced desperately after him.

As the door slid open, Eiji's head hit the wall with a sickening crack. He slid down into a motionless pile on the floor as Alex desperately lunged to close the door. The boys had a minute glimpse of a small, dark room before the door slammed shut.

Alex spun around, panting heavily. She stared coldly at the boys. "Get. Out," she whispered, her voice icy.

She closed her eyes as the boys hurried to collect an unconscious Eiji and obey. Hurrying towards the door, they heard her faltering voice utter one last phrase.

"I'm sorry," she called, as she sank to the floor.

* * *

A bit of warning ahead of time – in chapter seven this story will become 'M' rated. I'm not entirely sure why I'm telling you this in chapter five, but I just felt that I should. Hope you don't mind. 


	6. Dance with me

Disclaimer: I don't own Tennis no Oujisama

* * *

**Dance with me**

* * *

"Oishi, it hurts, nya!" Eiji whined, jumping onto Oishi's shoulders. He already had about a mile of white linen bandages wrapped around his poor, bruised head, but he was determined to milk this injury for all it was worth. "Buy me ice-cream!" he demanded. 

Oishi grinned. "Again?" he asked "You were only out for five minutes!"

Eiji pouted. "Exactly!" he announced "It was a whole five minutes!"

He paused, preparing his very best wounded puppy eyes. "Doesn't Oishi love me any more, nya?" he whined.

Oishi chuckled, amused at his doubles partner's antics. "Of course I do. But you already had ice-cream. Wouldn't you prefer something else?"

"Nope!" Eiji pronounced, cheering up instantly and bouncing around Oishi boisterously. "I want ice-cream!"

Oishi chuckled again. "If you can bounce around like that, I don't think you need ice-cream," he teased.

Eiji instantly draped himself over Oishi's shoulders, moaning in pretended agony. "I'm not at all well," he informed his friend gravely. "Alex-chan hurt me. I need ice-cream."

"Ok," Oishi replied, quite happy to indulge his partner. "Lead the way."

Eiji cheered and, completely forgetting his act, bounced away, dragging Oishi behind him.

Several shadowed girls radiated malice as they emerged from their vantage point in the bushes. "Sinclair will pay!" announced their leader darkly, as the evil overtook her face.

* * *

It seemed that not even the pain of a just barely not broken jaw could stop the crazed muttering that was Inui's habitual way of attempting to analyze any form of data which puzzled him greatly. This time, Inui was attempting to interpret the enigma that Sinclair Alexandra's behaviour the previous night had presented. He was meeting with very limited success, and this was irritating him to no end. 

There was no denying that there had always been something strange about that girl. She seemed to hold some part of herself away from people, while at the same time going to no great lengths to avoid interaction.

Even Kaidoh Kaoru's success with her was, from Inui's perspective, somewhat limited. Indeed, she had never seemed averse to his offer of friendship, and had even agreed to date him, but Inui perceived that it was entirely probable he had not yet touched her heart.

There had always been something guarded about her, and Inui's instincts were screaming that her determination to keep them away from that closed door sprang from the same root. There was something in that room, something she didn't want anybody else to know.

Inui's mind rose eagerly to such a challenge.

He had long ago dismissed the possibility that her extremely violent reaction had been due to protection of Kaidoh. Indeed, Kaidoh's reaction to the ugly bruise spreading across Inui's face when they had met in the hallway that morning confirmed Sinclair's claim that he had indeed gone home long before the incident had occurred. But all the alternative reasons Inui could come up with seemed bizarre at best.

Finally admitting that his data was incomplete, he concluded that the best way of uncovering Sinclair Alexandra's secret was to continue to observe the girl and record any and all data she presented.

* * *

Alex tried her best not to wince as her fingers were viciously jammed in the sliding door of the classroom. Why did they have to be so brutal? It seemed to her as though the number of 'accidents' she experienced had increased dramatically over the past couple of days. She suspected Inui's and Eiji's fangirls had joined forces with Kaidoh's, probably as a means of revenge for hurting their idols. Well, it couldn't be helped now. She'd just have to suffer the consequences. 

Kaidoh hissed as he saw the pointed tip of a decorative hairslide viciously stab into Alex's ribs hard enough to tear her shirt and draw blood. Taking a threatening step towards the culprit, he stopped as Alex held him back. "Leave it!" she murmured. Kaidoh glared at her. Was she stupid, he wondered, or suicidal? "If they keep this up they'll kill you!" he hissed back.

"And if you get involved there'll be war," she returned calmly.

Kaidoh just continued to glare at her, not following her reasoning at all. Alex sighed as she realized she'd have to spell it out for him.

"These girls don't care about you, Kaidoh-san" she explained quietly. If you get between them and me, they will not hesitate to hurt you too. Think about what happens then, ok?"

Kaidoh just continued to glare. Alex correctly surmised that he still did not understand. "These girls want revenge for what I did to Inui-senpai and Eiji-senpai. Right now, I'm their only target, and they'll stop at nothing to get to me. If you get in their way, there is every chance that you will get hurt. Your fans would exact their own revenge, which would mean a war between three of the main fan-clubs in this school. Let's just not go there," she advised.

Kaidoh scowled. She had a point.

Why did she always have to be right?

* * *

Inui discreetly observed Sinclair's progress through the school corridors some days later. How he managed to blend so well with the background when his glasses always glinted so unnervingly was anyone's guess. It was a secret as mysterious as the contents of his ever-present green notebook, which, in fact, would by this time be merely the latest in a long succession of mysterious, ever-present green notebooks. 

Inui readied his pen in anticipation as Sinclair neared a group of girls whom he knew to be most violent in their objection to the European girl. The results of their previous efforts could already be observed on Sinclair's body and clothes. Inui noted that Sinclair had done well in washing out blood and sewing up tears in her uniform, with the obvious exception of those inflicted on the poor garment during the course of that day, but she had made no attempt to disguise the various marks left on her person. Although the worst wounds had been covered, he knew for a fact that most of the others had been merely swabbed with methylated spirits and then left as they were.

Inui made a note to find out why she'd used methylated spirits, a substance which was acutely poisonous when enough of it was absorbed into the blood, when there were several safer and far less painful medical disinfectant products available from any supermarket. At the same time he skillfully angled the notebook away from a curious Eiji, thus disappointing the acrobatic player once again in his attempts to view the contents.

"Who are you writing about this time, nya?" asked the redhead finally, trying to crane his neck into an angle which allowed him to read what Inui had written, before giving up once again and pouting cutely.

"Sinclair-san," Inui replied absently as he counted the twelfth pen to tear into his subject's ribs.

Eiji turned to follow Inui's gaze, just in time to catch a glimpse of a standard stationery knife making its way out of one of the most brutal fangirl's bag. Realising what was about to happen as the sharp, stainless-steel blade slid out as far as it would go, his eyes widened in horror. He'd known Sinclair was probably being punished for what she'd done, and something petty within him had made him resolve to ignore it until she came begging to him to make it stop, but he hadn't realized anybody could be so cruel. This was going too far.

Opening his mouth, he drew breath to call out a warning to Sinclair, only to realise he was too late. His warning was broken off in shock and he watched helpless as the wickedly glinting tip of the knife viciously sliced its way through Sinclair's flesh.

Stunned, he stood rooted to the spot, eyes still wide open, until Alex's gasp of pain as the blood spurted out, soaking into her school uniform, brought him back to his senses. Vaulting nimbly over the crowd, he landed furiously right between Sinclair and her tormentor.

Expressive eyes flashing with anger, he faced up to the girl. "How dare you hurt Alex-chan!" he yelled, unconsciously causing a scene, passers-by no longer passing, but stopping to view the fight. "She's my friend! You're… you're…" here he paused, trying to find words strong enough to describe his adversary. "Hidoi, nya!" he yelled after a moment, glaring at the girl. "I hate you!"

"B-but she hurt you!" stammered the girl, unprepared to deal with the wrath of a furious redhead.

"That is not your concern," Inui informed her harshly, appearing beside Eiji menacingly. The time for observation was over. Inui's opinion was in accordance with Eiji's. They had gone too far.

Inui turned scornfully away from the foolish girl, instead focusing his attention on Alexandra. "Sinclair-san, are you ok?" he asked, more to snub the other girl than to make a real enquiry, as he'd already assessed the extent of the damage.

Alex, realising this, disregarded the question, instead replying with an apology for her actions the previous weekend.

Eiji, having also turned this back on the fangirl, the better to ignore her, was now muttering furiously about Kaidoh's absence. Inui stopped him, saying abruptly "I would wager that Sinclair-san told him to keep out of it."

Eiji looked at him "Huh, nya?" Eiji obviously hadn't thought anybody was listening. Inui adjusted his glasses. "Kaidoh. Sinclair-san advised him not to get involved."

He looked to Alex for confirmation. She nodded, unsurprised by his accurate deduction.

Then, bowing and asking them once more to forgive her, even though it was obvious they already had, she went off to visit the school nurse yet again, leaving Inui to explain to Eiji exactly why she'd told Kaidoh to stay out.

* * *

Alex settled herself on a zabuton, wincing slightly as the motion threatened to reopen several wounds. It had been a long week. The phrase 'Thank god it's Friday' flitted through her mind but briefly, too quickly replaced by the irksome knowledge that tomorrow, Saturday, brought Atobe. Cradling her teacup in her hands, she reflected on what she knew of the rich boy. 

He had seemed at first to be merely a spoiled, arrogant young man with a large bank account. But something in her last encounter with him had led her to suspect that this narcissistic exterior was merely that – a front designed to hide his true self. It still wasn't enough to make her like him – his constant use of 'Ore-sama' irritated her too much for that – but nevertheless, it was enough to create willingness within her to give him a chance to prove himself likable.

That, however, did not mean she had to relish the thought of attending his party. His staff would come at three, he'd said. Three being too late for an afternoon party to start, this information was enough for her to expect a couple of hours of torture in preparation for a stiffly formal, boring arrangement.

She just hoped it wouldn't be too painful.

* * *

Alex hurried to answer the knock that had sounded at her door. Atobe's staff were early, but nevertheless, she suspected they would not like to be kept waiting. Slipping into a convenient pair of shoes, she was amused to distinctly hear voices from the other side of the solid wood. "Why'd Atobe-sama choose a girl who lives in a dump like this?" a discontented male voice complained. It was hurriedly shushed by an older-sounding female voice as Alex pulled open the door. 

Immediately in front of her stood a very gay-looking man wearing a pink feather boa and a harshly fashionable older woman wearing lots of thick, dark make-up. Situated a few paces behind them in the hallway were several men and women all carrying large boxes and bags. A high-pitched yap brought Alex's gaze down, to meet with the sight of a small, rodent-like Chihuahua, just poking its head out of the man's bright pink and fluffy handbag.

All put together, it was a sight too ridiculous to even be found amusing, instead promoting a sort of stunned shock, which Alex did her best to combat.

"Darling, you must be Alex-chan," the feather boa simpered, in a complete turn-around from his previous comment, which he obviously thought she hadn't heard. "So happy to meet you," he continued "My name's Masataka, but you can call me Charlene."

His sincerely fake smile was making Alex's teeth hurt.

"And I'm Kyoko," his companion informed her. "Don't mind Charlene. He's always like this."

Her comment made it clear that the two did not get on.

Tired of waiting for an invitation, Charlene elbowed his way past Alex, who winced as he walked into her apartment without removing his fluoro-pink stilettos. Really, even with the black tight-pants and designer singlet top, that was too much pink for the eyes to handle.

* * *

Alex stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror that had somehow been produced out of one of the many bags which had been brought by the people she privately thought of as the minions. 

She had just sat through two hours of torture, but she had to admit, these people know their job. The person who stared back at her could only be called beautiful.

The gown that had been selected for her was of a pale rose colour, an elegant silk and chiffon affair which clung tight to her chest and waist, flowing out loosely from her hips in a long, sweeping skirt which ended at her ankles. Bunched chiffon off-the-shoulder straps held no purpose in a practical sense, instead offering additional ornamentation. Long white gloves had been produced from somewhere, and she had reason to suspect that the strappy stilettos she'd been forced into were studded with diamonds. A necklace of rose gold and diamonds hung around her neck, and her long hair was twisted up in an elegant knot at the back of her head, secured with a large clasp obviously designed to match the necklace.

Her skin had been made to look even paler than usual, and she was now so white she almost seemed to glow. This was set off beautifully by the pale pink lip-paint that had been applied, and a more natural tone added to her face with a masterful application of blush.

They had done something with her eyes, she wasn't sure what, and her habitual glasses had been safely locked away in their case, away from temptation, replaced instead with the contact lenses she usually found too troublesome to wear, and an admonition that "eyes of such a striking shade were too beautiful to hide behind glasses."

Alex wondered how grey-green could be called striking.

The true indication of their art, however, lay in the total absence of visible wounds or bruises. Even Alex, who knew exactly where they were, could barely make them out.

Now that took skill.

* * *

Alex suppressed an urge to groan as Atobe performed an over-elaborate bow. The boy's shirt was obviously designed to match her dress – in fact, there was every possibility it was cut from the same piece of cloth. But really, did it have to have so many frills? Alex reflected that it was probably only Atobe's extreme arrogance which allowed him to pull off a look which would be absolutely ridiculous on anyone else, regardless of gender. At least his pants were a conservative black. 

As Atobe straightened up, Alex looked closer. Oh god. He was actually wearing make-up. Alex briefly considered what the reaction would be if he were ever seen in Australia. Yes. The boy would be laughed out of town. But then, that was Australia.

Automatically placing a hand on the offered arm, she allowed Atobe to escort her down the stairs and outside, where his limousine and personal chauffer were waiting. Looking up as she was handed into the vehicle, Alex suppressed an amused smile as she noticed several of her neighbours discreetly craning their heads out of assorted windows. Right now, dressed as she was, she felt like a stranger in her own neighbourhood. Alex decided she'd much rather be one of those staring heads than part of the crazy scene Atobe had drawn her into. Silk and diamonds were nice, but only when someone else was wearing them.

* * *

Alex Sinclair made no effort to hide her amazement as Atobe played the gentleman and helped her out of the limousine. She'd had no idea there were places like this so close to Tokyo. For one thing, the building itself was huge. For another, it was situated right in the centre of what could only be called grounds. 

As it was becoming dark, the whole place had been turned into a magical fairyland by the myriad of tiny lights draped in amongst the flora. She paused to stare in wonder. Atobe followed her gaze.

"Ore-sama's parents are throwing a party to in honour of a recently acquired and very desirable business union," He explained briefly. Alex nodded her understanding. Atobe glanced at her for a second and then looked away.

"Ore-sama's parents believe anybody without money, fame or a title to be beneath their notice," he said abruptly. Alex nodded again. So, Atobe was trying to make waves. Interesting. She just wished he hadn't drawn her into it.

Glancing at her once more as though checking for confirmation that she understood, Atobe drew himself up proudly and, offering her his arm, proceeded to elegantly sweep them both inside.

* * *

Alex glanced in disbelief at the girl seated directly opposite of her. The girl, who had been introduced as Ayu – "Like the idol!" she had giggled – could only be described as cute. Shorter than Alex by a head, her hair had been bleached gold and tied in pigtails, which waved in large, loose ringlets down past her shoulders. She sported a dark solarium tan to go with the gold hair, and lots of thick make-up decorated her face. She'd probably used half a bottle of mascara on the eyelashes alone. 

Her dress, which was fluoro pink, had the shortest skirt Alex had ever seen, and showed off her slim, gold legs to perfection. She giggled constantly and seemed to have nothing intelligent to say for herself.

She was also a total bitch.

The moment she had spotted Atobe, she had attempted to attach herself to him. Pouting cutely when he brushed her off, she had then turned her attention to Alex, seemingly making it her mission to do all in her power to ridicule the girl whom she now seemed to consider her rival, and encouraging her friends to do likewise.

Her dinner partner, who obviously worshipped her, was doing his best to ignore her obvious pursuit of Atobe and less than polite behaviour towards Alex, but was starting to look increasingly uncomfortable. He seemed to be a decent enough sort, and was on good terms with Atobe, but he'd fallen for Ayu bad and was trying with debatable success to defend her character, at least in his own mind.

The strange thing was, he wasn't the only one who seemed to worship her. Her cute-beyond-belief appearance and manner seemed to have won over most of the people in her acquaintance, and she had long had a strong basis for her schemes of manipulation and instigation.

All this was made worse by her being an extremely petty, spoiled rich creature, blessed with no intelligence whatsoever. Stupidity that's malicious, Alex reflected, was by far the worst kind.

Right now, she had tilted her head cutely to the side and was twining her hair around one pink-painted finger. "Ne, Keigo-sama," she lisped in a cutesy little-girl voice. "Isn't your little protégée here just supercilious?!" It was obvious she didn't know what the word meant. "One would never know she actually lives in an apartment! How quaint!"

Atobe frowned at her. "Alexandra is ore-sama's date, not protégée. Ore-sama is sure, Hyuuga-san, that even you can remember the difference."

Distaste for the girl was barely hidden in his words. "And look up supercilious. Ore-sama knows you can afford a dictionary."

With that, he dismissed her, turning to engage Alex in conversation instead. Hyuuga Ayumi was forced to be content, for the moment, to engage her dinner partner in a pointed conversation about how kind and charitable Keigo-sama was to the poor, as though one were somehow inferior if one did not have three luxury cars, two yachts and a helicopter.

* * *

Alex looked wistful as she watched a couple waltz past. She was stuck in a corner of the ballroom with Atobe and a crowd of his and Ayumi's groupies, who were still discussing Atobe's extremely charitable disposition, even though the subject had long ago been exhausted and grown tiresome. They were going over the same ground for the third time now, and Alex would much rather be dancing. 

The only problem was, she had nobody to dance with. Atobe seemed to be busy feeding his own ego, and Alex found herself obliged to stay close to him.

Finally, Ayumi, satisfied with her work, dragged her date out onto the floor, planning, obviously, to demonstrate to Atobe her prowess at the foxtrot.

The conversation, now without its source of fuel, ground to a halt. More people drifted away to join the dancing. Alex noticed an elegant, arrogant-looking older couple approaching. Guessing them to be Atobe's parents, she examined them discreetly.

"Keigo, there you are," the woman said disinterestedly, pasting a fake smile on her face "Isn't the evening going so well? Your girlfriend is very pretty, by the way. What, pray, is her name?"

Alex resisted the urge to speak for herself, instead letting Atobe reply. It was obvious the woman thought she didn't understand Japanese.

"Sinclair?" his mother asked, dismissing all but the family name. "I am not familiar with this name. What does her family do?"

"Ore-sama does not know her family," Atobe informed her. Alex could see there was no love lost between him and his mother.

The woman looked surprised. "You don't know her family?" she pursed her lips, obviously not approving.

"That is correct," Atobe confirmed, with just barely enough respect to pass muster. "Now, if you don't mind, Ore-sama had just finished asking Alexandra if she'd like to dance. Father, Mother."

He bowed to each of his parents in turn and quickly ushered Alex onto the dance floor. "Ore-sama will teach you," he announced, maneuvering her into position.

Deciding not to pick at the fact that he hadn't asked her to dance, as she'd wanted to anyway, she nodded and did as he told her.

As there was a waltz playing again, Atobe decided to start with the basics of that, a pattern which involved steps in six sets of three.

Alex already knew this. As she soon got tired of Atobe loudly reciting the numbers one through to three repeatedly as he pushed her around the floor, she opened her mouth in an attempt to inform him of this fact. However, as Atobe refused to break off his chant long enough to allow her to speak, she was forced to resort to a different method of drawing this fact to his attention.

Shifting her weight slightly as he finished a set, she deftly maneuvered him into a more complicated pattern. Atobe followed automatically, and it was two more counts of three before he faltered, realizing what had happened. Quickly catching up and taking the lead again, he broke off his chant at last.

"You can dance?" he asked incredulously.

"I learned when I was small," Alex informed him, automatically following as he drew her into a different set. By now they were moving around the floor as fluidly as most of the couples around them. "It has been a long time."

"Ore-sama is surprised. Did you just learn to waltz, or did you learn other dances too?"

Alex smiled at him, enjoying the dance. "I learned modern, new vogue and latin ballroom, along with a few bush dances."

Atobe was distracted again as he skillfully avoided a collision. "Bush dances?" he enquired finally.

"Country dances. Folk dances," Alex clarified. "Like, say, a polka," she named her favourite.

"Ore-sama is not familiar with that one," Atobe said dismissively. Alex stared incredulously. The boy could waltz but had never tried a simple polka?

"It's fun," she said eventually. "You should try it sometime. Cut loose. Let your hair down, so to speak."

"Ore-sama's hair is always immaculately styled," Atobe informed her haughtily. Alex wondered if he'd misunderstood on purpose. The music ended and she stepped away, loathe to be so close when not dancing.

Atobe looked vaguely disappointed, but briefly, as the musicians struck up another tune, and he drew Alex back for another dance.

* * *

Alex leaned back against the soft leather seat of Atobe's limousine. Despite the efforts of excessively cute, malicious Ayu, she had enjoyed the evening much more than she had anticipated. She had always loved dancing, and was pleased to discover that Atobe was an excellent dancer. She had also, to some extent, enjoyed the conversation the evening had presented. With Ayu out of the picture, the topic and discussion became intelligent, well-informed and interesting. 

All in all, an evening well spent. And she'd almost managed to forget about the diamonds on her shoes.

She had just started to relax when Atobe spoke. "Ore-sama has enjoyed this evening thoroughly," he informed her, in a slightly less haughty manner than usual. Alex glanced up at him, waiting for him to continue.

"Ore-sama usually finds such parties entirely tedious," he elaborated. "Ore-sama feels that you are responsible for this pleasant change, and would very much appreciate it if you would join ore-sama for all such events."

Atobe was obviously exerting himself. The pause before the word 'appreciate' was barely noticeable.

Alex thought for a second. The only thing holding her back from an immediate 'yes', she reflected, was his constant arrogance. With this information in mind, there was only one logical conclusion.

"Would you stop referring to yourself as 'ore-sama'?" she enquired hesitantly.

Atobe looked uncomfortable. "That would be difficult," he admitted finally.

Alex, seeing his discomfort, relented slightly. "Just in private, then."

Atobe looked slightly happier about this suggestion. "Well, ore-sa – no… I," he corrected himself quickly "I could try."

Alex nodded, happy with this. "Then I will accept your most generous invitation," she concluded, willing to feed his ego slightly after taking away his precious title.

Atobe looked slightly appeased. "Then I will meet you on Sunday, two weeks from now," he said carefully.

* * *

My God! This chapter was hard! No wonder Jane Austen only wrote what she knew! The only thing that stopped me giving up was the thought that if I can write about gay sex, then I can certainly write about an upper class party! I hope it turned out ok… 


	7. What a girl's worth

Disclaimer: I don't own Tennis no Oujisama

* * *

**What a girl's worth

* * *

**

Alex looked up as Kaidoh sat down in the seat next to her, still hot and sweaty from morning practice. The seating arrangements had been recently re-ordered, through a lightning fast, class-wide game of janken, the result of which had somehow put Alex and Kaidoh in neighbouring seats. Unfortunately, the same event had also placed Momo right behind Kaidoh. The result of this arrangement was, of course, a daily outbreak of arguments in the classroom. Alex had learned to ignore them – the other boys would break them up if things looked like getting physical.

"Kaidoh-san, ohayo gozaimasu," she greeted him calmly, closing the pages of the latest book – this one in Japanese.

"Ohayo gozaimasu," he replied. "What are you reading?"

Alex glanced at the cover of the book to check. "Murakami Haruki's _Norwegian Wood_," she informed him, pushing up her glasses.

"I see. Is it good?" Kaidoh had heard of the book, but he had always been so obsessed with Tennis that he didn't read much.

"It has its moments."

Alex stopped talking as Momo slammed the door open just as the bell rang.

Marching over to his desk, he dropped his school bag on the floor and leaned his precious racquets gently on said poor, abused bag, before slumping into his seat.

"Hey Mamushi, did you do the English homework?" he asked loudly, obviously wanting to brag to someone about his own homework. Kaidoh looked blank for a moment, then hissed at him.

Ignoring a very smug looking Momo, he leaned guiltily towards Alex as Ishizuka-sensei walked into the room. "Sinclair-san, what was the homework?" he muttered under the sound of the general chaos occurring in the classroom.

Momo's sharp ears picked up the question. "Geez, are you two still calling each other by surname?" he asked, disbelief dripping from his tone. "Aren't you two dating? It's supposed to be –"

Here he paused, creasing his face into an exaggerated scowl and crossing his arms in front of his body. "Call me Kaoru-chan," he muttered, staring off somewhere to the left in a poor imitation of Kaidoh.

Uncreasing the scowl, he pointed wildly at Alex. "And then you reply 'Oh Kaoru-chan! Call me Alex-chan!'"

Momo's smooth transition to the falsetto that was supposed to be Alex as he clasped his hands together and blinked his eyes rapidly, poking one foot in the air behind him, was truly admirable.

"Momoshiro-san! Sit down and shut up!" The exasperated teacher yelled, completely ruining a fine drama performance.

Momo, still holding his pose, realised that the whole class was staring at him. He grinned guiltily. "Eheh. Sorry."

Dropping his foot, he rubbed the back of his head in a slightly embarrassed manner before slumping back down into his seat and rocking the chair back onto two legs unconsciously. The teacher glared at him. He quickly settled it back onto all four legs.

Ishizuka-sensei glared for a few more seconds to make sure he'd behave, before nodding to the rest of the class. "Hai. Kiritsu."

* * *

Alex and Kaidoh quietly shuffled papers at the small table in Alex's apartment. As punishment for Kaidoh's incomplete homework, Ishizuka-sensei had given the whole class a hundred and fifty word essay on the main character of their current source – to be completed for class the next day. Faced with such a difficult task, Kaidoh had asked Alex if they might be able to do it together. Alex, not having the heart to tell him that she'd completed it in the five minutes he'd spent shouting with Momo at lunchtime, had agreed. 

And so, she was now exhausting her brainpower trying to think of ways to inform Kaidoh, without discouraging him, that 'Momo is talent of listened to people do' just did not make sense.

Suddenly, Kaidoh thrust his pen away from him, hissing at his essay attempt.

Alex glanced at him sympathetically. Noticing that they'd emptied the teapot, she got up to refill it, resettling Monty's tail as it slipped from her shoulders with the motion.

"Sinclair-san," Kaidoh muttered, still scowling at his homework. Alex turned back. "Can I use your first name?"

He sounded like the issue had been nagging at him ever since Momo's mention of it that morning.

Alex smiled at him. "Of course," she replied "Please call me Alex."

She repeated her first introduction to him. "May I use your first name too?" she added.

Kaidoh nodded, relieved that the problem had been dealt with so easily. Alex returned the nod. "Well then, Kaoru-san. Would you like some more tea?"

Kaidoh looked up, completing his essay as Alex got up to fill the teapot for the fifth time that evening. "Um, Alex-san," he enquired urgently, as though something had only just occurred to him. "What time does the last train leave?"

Alex glanced at her clock-radio in a considering manner "Eight minutes ago," she said shortly.

Kaidoh froze. "Eight minutes ago?" he repeated questioningly, confirming that he'd heard correctly before he panicked. Alex glanced at the clock again before nodding.

"You mean I missed it?" Kaidoh hissed. Alex nodded.

Kaidoh thought hard. "Oh," he managed. Having never been in such a situation before, he was a little out of his depth.

Alex filled the teacups calmly. "Call your parents," she advised. Kaidoh, as though automatically reacting to her words, reached blindly for his mobile phone.

Alex frowned into her teacup. It was careless of her to forget a detail like that.

Hearing the sound of Kaidoh snapping his phone shut, Alex regarded him with calm eyes.

Kaidoh scowled uncomfortably at the phone in his hand. "My mother said I'll have to spend the night," he muttered eventually.

Alex nodded. Rising, she pointed in the direction of a curtained-off doorway. "The bathroom's through there," she directed briskly. "Leave your uniform in the washing machine. I'll find you a towel and something you can wear tonight."

Kaidoh stared at her. "…What?"

Alex sighed. "It's late" she reminded him. "Go get ready to sleep. I'll clean up here."

Pulling him to his feet, she pushed him in the direction she had indicated. Stunned by the speed of the proceedings, Kaidoh did as he was told.

Showering quickly, he stepped out of the bathroom to find a towel and a dark-blue and white patterned unisex sleeping yukata, both of which Alex had placed outside the door for him. The washing machine was already running, he noticed as he dried himself and put the garment on.

Sliding the curtain aside, he saw Alex through a nearby open doorway, just finishing laying out a futon. She glanced up at him from where she knelt on the floor as he entered the room.

"I hope you're ok with a futon," she apologised. "I'm afraid I don't have anything else."

Kaidoh quickly assured her that the futon was fine、adding his thanks for going to so much trouble.

"It's no problem," she assured him, slipping towards the door. "Is there anything else you need? Monty doesn't bother you, does he?" she asked.

Kaidoh glanced at the glass container in the corner, where Monty was already asleep. Upon being assured that he did not consider the reptile a problem, and that she'd already done more than enough for him, she nodded. "Very well. Good night, Kaoru-san."

She exited the room, closing the door carefully behind her. Turning off the light, he crawled into the futon and closed his eyes.

Opening them a moment later as something occurred to him, he crawled back out of the futon. Poking his head out of the door, the sight of Alex spreading a thin blanket out on the worn wooden floorboards confirmed his suspicions. "Why didn't you say you only had one futon?" he hissed at her. Emerging from the room, he took the blanket from Alex. "I'll sleep here!"

Alex sat back on her heels, regarding him with those calm, emotionless eyes. "You are my guest," she informed him gravely.

"That doesn't mean you have to give up your futon!" Kaidoh scowled. He felt guilty that he almost hadn't noticed this.

"I cannot have my guests sleeping on the floorboards," Alex informed him, as though stating the obvious.

"You shouldn't sleep out here either!" Kaidoh yelled.

Alex was silent. Kaidoh stared her down. Finally, Alex closed her eyes and sighed. Rising, she took the blanket from Kaidoh, who watched with suspicion as she folded it up.

"Go to sleep," she said in a tone of finality, placing the blanket back in it's closet.

Kaidoh continued to stare, unsure if he'd won the argument or not. "What…?" he began. Alex turned her grey eyes toward him. "I will join you when I am finished," she said calmly.

Kaidoh froze. That wasn't what he had meant. Alex looked at his mildly shell-shocked expression. "It is the only logical compromise," she informed him, gathering some clothes.

Before Kaidoh could protest, she had drawn the curtain decisively shut behind her.

* * *

Kaidoh opened bleary eyes as Alex crawled quietly out of the futon. "What's the time?" he groaned, watching Alex's sleep-blurred shape attempt to slip unobtrusively out of the room. Alex paused at the door. "It's 5:30," she murmured. "Go back to sleep." 

Her voice had that husky, early-morning tone to it.

"5:30…" Kaidoh muttered, his eyes sliding shut of his own accord. Too tired to comment further on the ungodly hour after studying so late, he gave up. Alex shut the door quietly behind her.

Opening his eyes to the smell of cooking food some time later, he this time managed to venture further into the realms of the conscious as his stomach growled its complaints.

Dragging himself sluggishly out of the futon, he stumbled towards the smell. He had never been very good at mornings – only a relay of wake-up alarms, his mother, and sheer will-power could drag him out of bed in time to complete his early morning jog.

Adjusting his yukata, he stepped off the tatami and onto the floorboards that had been the topic of the previous night's discussion.

"Ohayo gozaimasu," Alex called from the kitchen, where she was frying fish, wearing an apron over a yukata similar to the one she'd provided for Kaidoh. In the corner of the small living/dining room, next to the cage of mice, an ancient electric iron was cooling. Close by hung Kaidoh's neatly pressed uniform.

There was a soft clunk behind him as Alex placed bowls of rice and miso soup on the table. These were quickly joined by the fish. "Would you like tea, water, or vegetable juice?" Alex asked.

Kaidoh quickly asked for tea. He had held a deep distrust for vegetable drinks ever since his first contact with Inui's infamous concoctions.

Alex swiftly put some ice into two cups, placing these on the table. Removing her apron, she knelt down to pour. Kaidoh joined her. "Itadakimasu."

Alex finished her breakfast quickly and disappeared back into the kitchen, instructing Kaidoh to get dressed into his uniform and fold up the futon. Grabbing his uniform, he retreated to the bedroom to do so. When he emerged, Alex was checking her appearance in front of the small bathroom mirror.

Finishing up, she turned to Kaidoh. "Your lunch is in your bag. I hope onigiri is ok."

Kaidoh thanked her.

Slipping on his shoes in the genkan, something occurred to Kaidoh. "Where are your parents?" he asked curiously, holding open the door for Alex. Alex glanced at him, her face blank. "My parents remained in Australia," she replied vaguely, obviously with no intention of elaborating.

Kaidoh let the door fall shut. "Really?" he looked surprised. Alex nodded. "I live alone."

"But that's dangerous!" Kaidoh hissed, shocked.

"Not so much," Alex replied cryptically, her face still carefully blank as she locked the door. "Hurry. We'll miss the train."

* * *

Despite Alex's warnings, they made it to school with plenty of time to spare. Changing their shoes, they walked together to their homeroom, where Kaidoh pulled his tennis uniform – which Alex had also washed – out of his bag and went off to hit some balls on the courts before class commenced. 

Alex opened up her latest book. Finding her place, she began to read, looking up half a sentence later as the door slid loudly open. "Oh-ha!" the newcomer announced loudly

"Ohayo gozaimasu," Alex replied, before going back to her novel. The newcomer pouted. "Oh! Aren't you even a little bit curious?"

A mischievous smile replaced the pout as she looked around. This girl had a face which seemed born for mischief. "We're all alone," she commented, dropping into Kaidoh's vacant seat.

Alex glanced at her. "And I suppose you plan to molest me?" Alex commented dryly. She liked the look of this girl.

The girl blinked, surprised. "Oh! You do that straight face so well!" she exclaimed. It was truly amazing the way she could make a single, overworked syllable like 'oh' sound so suggestive. "But no! Look at the time! I'll have to molest you later!" The mischief danced around the corners of her mouth cheerfully.

"I'm Mizuki," she informed Alex, as the first people began to drift in before the bell rang. "Yamada Mizuki. I've transferred here from a hole in the middle of nowhere. What about you? You're not Japanese, are you."

Alex smiled. "Sinclair Alexandra," she introduced herself. "Call me Alex. I'm from Australia."

"An exchange student, huh?" Mizuki guessed incorrectly "Your Japanese is very good. Oh! I bet you're popular with the boys!" she said teasingly.

It was Alex's turn to blink. "Not particularly, no."

There was that mischievous smile again. "You do that face so well. Oh! Is this your seat?"

This last part was to Kaidoh, who was currently glaring at her. Mizuki quickly jumped up, and leaned instead on Alex's desk, where she promptly continued talking.

"Oh! He's a scary one, isn't he!" she confided loudly, as though Kaidoh was not sitting right next to them listening to every word. Kaidoh hissed at her from his seat, before pulling out his biology book. No amount of baiting could induce him to fight with a girl.

"Oh! I bet he's secretly head-over-heels in love with you!" Mizuki announced in a loud stage whisper, sending a mischievous smile in Kaidoh's direction.

Explosive laughter was heard from the general direction of the door. Momo clutched his sides and attempted to breathe, obviously having walked in just in time to hear Mizuki's latest comment.

Kaidoh hissed at him. "Idiot!" Now here was somebody he could fight.

Momo stopped laughing. "Oi! Who're you callin' an idiot, damn mamushi?" he growled

Both boys began to roll up their sleeves. Several other boys quickly jumped on the two before the fight could start.

Seeing that her victim was otherwise occupied, Mizuki lowered her voice slightly as the bell rang. "So, Alex-chan. Yoroshiku, ne!"

* * *

Alex hurried to get to the door before Charlene could press the doorbell a second time. His and Kyoko's visits had become a weekly event, one that consistently, after hours of what, to Alex, was torture, came up with a fantastic result. 

Alex stepped smartly aside as Charlene swept into the room in his glittering gold platform shoes. Charlene had demonstrated a disturbing tendency to dress like one of the protagonists of the Australian movie 'Priscilla'. Alex wondered if he'd ever seen it.

"Today, we're going to do something slightly different," he announced, inspecting his carefully manicured fingernails in a bored manner.

"How different?" Alex asked warily, closing the door as the entourage finished coming through. Kyoko smiled at her reassuringly. "Nothing too terrible," she said kindly. "One of the young master's friends has a private nightclub."

Alex detected a note of disapproval in her voice. "We've been instructed to prepare your appearance in a suitable manner for such a venue."

"I don't do nightclubs." Alex informed the older woman.

"Very sensible of you, dear," Kyoko replied. "Shall I tell the young master that you're not going?"

She reached for her mobile phone, obviously eager to deter the plans she so disapproved of.

Alex nodded, stroking Monty, who was twined around her shoulders in his favourite position.

Kyoko pressed the speed dial. Alex wandered into the kitchen and filled her small teapot with water as Kyoko began to talk into the device. A few moments later, she was called back. "Alex-chan, he wants to talk to you," she said wearily, handing Alex the phone. Alex took it. "Atobe-san?" she enquired.

"Alex-chan," Atobe greeted her. "Ore-sama simply cannot break this engagement," he informed her in his habitual arrogant manner.

"Then find someone else to go with you," Alex returned calmly.

There was the faint sound of a door shutting from Atobe's end of the line. "Everyone else bores me," Atobe complained, dropping the use of 'ore-sama'. "And I don't want to go by myself. If I don't have a date, Hyuga won't leave me alone."

"She's cute, and she worships your greatness," Alex replied, unmoved. "She's perfect for you."

"How could you possibly say that?" Atobe's voice sounded dramatic. He was probably posing. "She's cruel, and malicious, and has no intelligence whatsoever!"

Alex sighed. "So just don't go."

"I already told you," Atobe informed her. "I can't just not go!"

Alex was silent.

"Please?" Atobe ventured, a word that was intensely difficult for him to utter.

Alex closed her eyes. "Fine," she muttered in defeat, before ending the call. Flipping the phone shut, she handed it back to Kyoko, who looked vaguely disappointed.

"Well, darlings," Charlene broke the silence. "Let's do this."

* * *

Alex shifted uncomfortably in the tight black jeans Charlene had produced after she had flatly refused to wear the tiny denim skirt that had been his first choice. Despite what Charlene had said, denim was never meant to be as tight as those pants were. 

She glanced at Atobe. Whoever made the wardrobe selections seemed to derive a sadistic pleasure from choosing matching outfits for her and Atobe. His jeans didn't look quite as tight as hers, but still she wondered how he could stand it.

Alex stared out the limousine window into the darkness, before refocusing her eyes to look at her reflection. In her opinion, she looked like a prostitute, though some might say rock star instead.

Her top, which left her shoulders bare, was made of thin, dark purple netting, through which her skin and the lace of her black bra were clearly visible. An expanse of taut stomach was visible in the large gap between jeans and top. Netted sleeves ended at the elbow, and her thin, pale hands and wrists were ornamented with various gothic-style accessories.

A string of black pearls hung around her neck. Her long hair was straightened and left loose, and her pale skin had once again been made paler with make-up, this time set off by the dark eye make-up and bright red lipstick that had been applied. Once again, she wore contacts.

Thankfully, Atobe wasn't dressed quite so provocatively, though his attire was similar. He also wore black and purple along with various accessories. His hair was gelled in carefully messy spikes which gave him a dangerously handsome air.

One would never tell by looking at them that they were only 16 and 17 years old.

* * *

Alex quietly sipped her water, which she hadn't let out of her sight all evening. Atobe appeared to be enjoying himself, but the loud music and flashing lights in the general darkness were slowly getting on Alex's nerves. 

The nightclub was situated deep in the basement of a fairly conservative office building, about five floors underground. No clues outside hinted at its existence, but it was obviously fairly well known – the place was crowded beyond belief. If the air-conditioner was still working, it was surely giving up the fight –the place was a sauna that smelled of human sweat, stale alcohol, and cigarette smoke. Alex was slowly being smothered.

Atobe had tried to entice her to dance, but Alex had taken one look at the mass of writing bodies one the dance floor and had flatly refused. Thus, she was now guarding her drink against spiking, which she really wouldn't put past Ayu and her groupies. She knew for a fact that the alcohol was freely flowing – she was probably the only person in the place who had refused to swallow it – and she suspected more dangerous drugs were too.

Why had Atobe brought her to a place like this? She was surprised it hadn't been shut down long ago.

Finishing her drink, she discovered she needed to use the toilet desperately. Tapping Atobe on the shoulder, she informed him where she was going and excused herself from the table.

Wandering off in search of the toilet, she finally found it in a less crowded area of the basement. Opening the door, she was disgusted to hear telltale moans and grunts coming from one of the cubicles. She winced as a banging sound reverberated from that cubicle, followed closely by several swearwords. She desperately hoped that someone had fallen into the toilet. That might cool them off a little.

Finishing her business quickly as the moans started up again, she left the room. Letting the door swing shut behind her, she stopped short as a guy she vaguely recognised as having been talking with Ayu earlier that evening blocked her path.

"Twenty thousand yen," he growled at her.

Alex looked blank. "I beg your pardon?"

"That's how much you cost, isn't it?" he demanded rudely. "Twenty thousand yen," he repeated his offer.

Understanding dawned on Alex's face. "No thank you," she replied in a disgusted tone, moving to brush past him. "I'm not interested."

The guy blocked her path again. "Thirty thousand, and it's more than you're worth," the guy growled, opening his wallet and fishing out the money, which he thrust at her.

Without waiting for her reply, he grabbed her, pushing her against the wall. Alex fought back. "Ugh! Get off me!" she demanded, as the guy's hands tried to undo her belt. Pushing his hands away, she yelled as he slapped her face hard. "I'm paying you for this, so you better be good," he growled menacingly. Before Alex could recover, he had the buckle undone and was working on the fly of her pants.

Thankful for the first time for the tight denim, which made it difficult for him to get them off, she desperately clawed at his face. Grabbing both her hands in one of his own, he pinned them above her head. "Be good," he grunted, still struggling with the denim. Alex's only reply was an attempt to knee him in the balls. The slap she received this time was harder than the first. Alex felt her lip split.

Flicking her tongue out to deal with the blood, she twisted her wrists into a strange angle and dug her fingernails hard into the hand that restrained her. Taking advantage of his brief distraction at the sudden, unexpected pain, she pushed at him as hard as she could, grunting slightly with the effort.

She was surprised when she met with less resistance than her earlier efforts had led her to expect.

Recovering her balance, she heard the distinct sound of a fist punching gut, followed closely by the sound of somebody coughing up liquid.

Atobe frowned at the blood that spattered his perfect self as his adversary slumped against the wall. "Are you ok?" he asked Alex urgently, obviously deciding that the blood and other matter on his clothes was a minor problem that could be dealt with later. He eyed Alex's split lip.

Alex nodded, still in the aggressive pose she'd assumed as she'd recovered her balance. Atobe looked relieved. He walked towards her, turning his back on Alex's attacker as he did so. With a furious growl, the other guy launched himself at Atobe. With speed born from long hours of tennis, Atobe spun around. There was a sickening crack as Atobe's fist connected with the guy's jaw. The guy's eyes rolled back in his head as his body hit the ground.

Alex spied motion in a nearby doorway as the thud sounded through the passage they were in. She launched herself in that direction, grabbing a fleeing Ayu, who spun around and attempted to scratch Alex's face. Alex slapped her to make her stop, holding her at an arm's length. "You go too far, Hyuga," she warned, neatly dodging Ayu's frenzied kick.

"What are you going to do about it, bitch?" the heiress hissed, all cuteness gone. Wrenching herself from Alex's grasp, she attacked like a wildcat, with claws and teeth.

Alex's strike was instinctual. For the second time that evening, a sickening crack sounded in the hallway. Ayu staggered back screaming, manicured hands clutching her nose. Blood leaked between her fingers. She collapsed to her knees, still screaming.

Atobe sighed and pulled a mobile phone out of the unconscious man's pocket. "Moshi moshi. Ore-sama would like an ambulance," he began. Naming a place close to the nightclub, but not in it, he hung up.

Clicking his fingers to summon Kabaji, he frowned as he remembered that his almost constant companion had not accompanied them.

He eyed the human detritus distastefully.

"I'll take Hyuga," Alex murmured, realizing what he intended. Atobe looked at her doubtfully. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"It's just her nose," Alex pointed out. "She can still walk."

Proving her point, she heaved the other, still hysterically screaming girl to her feet.

Atobe nodded, before bending to lift the other one onto his back, grimacing as he touched sticky blood and vomit.

* * *

Alex winced as Atobe applied salve to the split on her lip. When the ambulance had come to collect Ayu and Alex's attacker, Atobe had suggested she also go to the hospital. Alex had flatly refused. 

Therefore, Atobe had taken her home. Upon finding out Alex's habitual method of treating her injuries, Atobe had produced his own first aid kit from somewhere in the limousine and insisted on coming up to her apartment to treat her wounds himself.

The salve he had chosen didn't sting at all – Alex's wince was merely due to surprise at the cold sensation on her lip. Atobe had informed her that it would numb the pain and kill germs, or something like that – the explanation was tangled up with Atobe's tale of how even one of the other boys on his tennis team, who refused to use anything that stung in the slightest, would use this cream. This information, in itself, was tangled up in a long story about how, exactly, Atobe had discovered this fact.

Instructing Alex not to wipe the cream off, Atobe replaced the lid and returned the salve to its first aid buddies.

Declining Alex's offer of tea, Atobe stood up to leave. Walking towards the genkan, he stopped dead. "Alex-chan, there is a giant snake in your apartment," he informed her in a strange voice.

Alex looked past him. She'd forgotten that Atobe didn't yet know about Monty.

Monty slithered past Atobe on his way over to Alex, who allowed him to settle around her shoulders. Stroking the snake, she introduced him to Atobe. "There's no need to be afraid," she added, seeing the look on Atobe's face. "Monty won't hurt you."

Atobe recovered his composure. "Of course it won't hurt me. I knew it was harmless," he announced.

"No," Alex corrected. "Not harmless. He just won't hurt you."

Atobe did not look particularly happy to be corrected on this point. "Oh," he managed weakly. "It's wrapped around your neck," he pointed out.

Monty hissed at him

"Monty is not an 'it'," Alex translated. "However," she glanced at Monty pointedly. "He shouldn't be complaining. He should still be in bed, where I put him before I left," she reminded the snake.

Monty hissed at her in a pleading manner.

"Fine," Alex relented. "But only until I go to bed. Then you sleep," she warned him. "Now be a good boy and say bye-bye to Atobe-san."

Atobe stared. This was a side of Alex that he had never imagined. She spoke to the snake like it actually understood.

Monty hissed briefly in Atobe's direction before resting his head on Alex's shoulder. Alex seemed satisfied with this. Still stroking the snake, she escorted Atobe to the genkan.

Atobe slipped on his shoes. "Don't rub off that cream," he reminded her, taking one last nervous glance at the snake before walking out the door.

* * *

Ok, if you could tell I know absolutely nothing about nightclubs, I'm sorry. 

Now complaining time. I miss my short, 1 1/2 page chapters so much. Do you know how long it takes to type all this up?! Believe it or not, I do actually have a life!!!


	8. The smartest thing

Disclaimer: I don't own Tennis no Oujisama.

* * *

**The smartest thing

* * *

**

"Oh! What happened to your face!?" Mizuki exclaimed when she saw Alex at school the next Monday. She carefully touched the large bruise that occupied almost half of Alex's face. "Who did this to you!? Was it Kaidoh!? I didn't think he was the type, but I'll kill him!"

The expression on Mizuki's face was truly scary.

Alex gently brushed the hand away. "It wasn't Kaoru-san," she assured her friend. She briefly recounted the main events of her last evening with Atobe.

"What, you mean that that Atobe only gave that bastard internal bleeding and a broken jaw!?" Mizuki yelled when she was finished, heedless to the people that stopped to stare. "Oh! What was he thinking! I would've added at least two broken arms, and possibly rearranged his balls as well, if I were Atobe!"

She looked as though she wouldn't find that course of action at all difficult. "And that bitch, Hyuga… just don't get me started on what I'd have done to her!" she growled. "No-one hurts my Alex-chan and gets away with it!"

In the few days since she had come to the school, Mizuki had decided to adopt Alex as her special friend.

"I don't think they exactly got away with it," Alex pointed out. "And really, I'm fine."

"Oh! Nearly being raped is not fine!" Mizuki corrected her. Jumping up from Kaidoh's seat, she pulled a startled Alex tightly to her bosom. "Oh! You poor thing! You don't have to be so brave all the time, you know! Here, cry on me!" she offered.

"You're squashing my face," Alex managed, in a voice muffled slightly by Mizuki's breasts. "It hurts."

"Oh! Sorry!" Mizuki released her, just as Kaidoh entered the classroom.

Kaidoh hissed. "What happened?" he asked furiously. Alex quickly told him. By the time she was done, the expression on Kaidoh's face said quite clearly that it was entirely possible the viper would have found Mizuki's most sadistic plan of action completely inadequate.

* * *

Alex swung her school bag onto her shoulder. It had been almost a week since the last incident, and her face was finally beginning to heal. 

Deciding to take a less crowded shortcut to the train station, Alex rounded a corner, to see an unknown high school boy with bleached hair advancing on a terrified looking girl in a uniform Alex recognized as that of Seishun middle school. Her hands were clenched fearfully to her mouth, her dark eyes wide above them.

Though the girl was facing Alex, she was too preoccupied with the boy to have seen her yet.

Deciding to intervene, Alex dropped her bag. Two pairs of eyes moved towards her at the sound.

"Is this boy bothering you?" Alex asked the younger girl politely. The girl nodded timidly, causing her two long pigtails to swing erratically. "Y-yes," she said in a small voice. At this, Alex moved between the two. The boy glared at her. "Get lost bitch," he said threateningly, "Or you'll be next."

Alex didn't move. "Run, girl," she advised quietly. Needing no further instruction, the girl quickly scampered off. The boy made to follow her. Alex blocked his path as she heard the girl stumble slightly, before recovering and making herself scarce.

The boy tried to slap Alex away. Alex winced as his hand came into contact with still healing bruises, but still refused to be moved.

The pattering of the girl's feet died away. The boy growled at Alex. "Stupid woman." He slapped her again and made to storm past her, before noticing that Alex, automatically responding to the second slap, had kicked him in the shin.

He rounded on Alex. "You'll pay for that."

* * *

"Ryuzaki-chan, what's wrong?" Oishi asked in a rather alarmed tone of voice, as a desperately panting Sakuno tried to catch her breath in front of him. Tezuka, whom Oishi had been talking with, also appeared to be slightly concerned, but as his facial expression hadn't changed in the slightest, it was rather hard to be sure. 

Sakuno grabbed Tezuka's hand and began to drag him away. "Oishi-nisan, Tezuka-nisan, please help!" she begged. "She'll be hurt!"

Oishi ran after her as Tezuka continued to be dragged. "Ryuzaki-chan, wait! What are you talking about!? Who'll be hurt!?" Oishi yelled, trying his best to choose a question.

"Please hurry!" Sakuno sobbed, too upset to reply properly. Tezuka halted, spinning her around to face him. "Ryuzaki-san," he said sternly, "What happened?"

Sakuno automatically responded to the tone of voice. "It was Akutsu-san," she sobbed. "He was looking for Ryoma-kun! I was so scared he'd hurt me because I didn't know where Ryoma-kun was, and then she came!" Sakuno tugged at Tezuka's hand again. "Please hurry!"

Tezuka allowed her to pull him along again. Oishi fumbled with his mobile phone. "Taka… Taka…" he muttered, going through his contacts list. Finding what he was looking for, he waited impatiently for the call to go through. When the other end finally picked up, Oishi commenced a short, hurried conversation, before hanging up. "Taka said he'd call Akutsu's mother," he informed Tezuka, who nodded, still being dragged by Sakuno.

* * *

Alex winced as Akutsu hit her again. Upon reflection, this wasn't the smartest thing she'd ever done. She was becoming rather battered yet again, and yet she sensed that Akutsu wasn't even trying to do any real damage. 

Launching herself at Akutsu, she bit down hard. Akutsu yelled. "You crazy bitch!" he screamed, shaking her off. Truly furious now, he punched Alex, who reeled from the blow. As he hit her again, she collapsed to the ground.

Alex tried to stand up, but Akutsu kicked her. She bit back a scream of pain as she felt one of her ribs break, and tasted blood. Determined not to give up, she struggled to stand once again.

Akutsu kicked her down as Tezuka, Oishi and Sakuno rounded the corner.

"Akutsu-san, stop!" Oishi yelled.

Kicking Alex once again to be sure she'd stay down, Akutsu rounded on the newcomers. "You want what she got?" he growled, taking a menacing step towards them. He looked down as he felt something catch his ankle.

Alex hauled her battered body to its feet, wiping blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. "Your fight is with me, not them," she informed him in a cold voice.

"Stupid woman. Just stay down!" Akutsu growled at her, punching at her again. Alex grabbed his arm, and received a kick to the gut for her trouble. Staggering, she spat blood out of her mouth, before lunging desperately at Akutsu.

Bored with the fight, Akutsu punched her once again. Alex's head hit the wall with a sickening crack. She slid to the ground, unconscious, just as two new people rushed into the alley.

* * *

Alex kept her eyes shut as she drifted into consciousness, taking the time to bring herself up-to-date on what had happened to her. 

She was lying in a fairly uncomfortable bed, and the place she was in smelled like a hospital. This made a great deal of sense, as her head was throbbing, she could still taste remnants of blood, the sharp pain of broken ribs pierced her chest, and she was conscious of quite a few general bruises and grazes to go with the other injuries.

Alex opened her eyes. "Oh! You're awake!" Mizuki informed her unnecessarily, leaning over her with a mischievous smile and worry in her eyes. Several Seigaku regulars leaned over her, crowding around Mizuki, who scolded them. "Oh! Give her some space! How's poor Alex-chan supposed to breathe with all you big boys crowded around her!?"

"Mada mada dane," muttered Ryoma sullenly from his corner. Eiji bounced over to him "Ochibi! You're here too!" Eiji reminded him.

Ryoma looked bored. "I'm only here 'cause this idiot dragged me here," he muttered, indicating Momo as he took a sip of his grape ponta.

"Who are you calling an idiot, ochibi!? I'm your senpai! You should respect me!" Momo grabbed Ryoma in a headlock, causing the other boy to spray ponta halfway across the room.

Tezuka glared. "Momo, Echizen, thirty laps!" he roared. "Everyone else, out!"

"Since she's your girlfriend, Kaidoh, you can stay," Oishi added quickly, as everyone else under Tezuka's jurisdiction wandered out, grumbling. Mizuki stuck her tongue out gleefully at their retreating backs.

Alex's attention was drawn towards the other side of the room, where two girls and a tough-looking old lady were talking quietly together, glancing every few moments in her direction. One girl, whom Alex recognized as the girl from earlier that day, was twisting one of her long braids in her hands nervously, and the other girl looked equally upset.

Suddenly, observing that Alex's attention was on them, they both launched themselves forward. Bowing deeply and refusing to meet her gaze, they both began to speak at the same time.

Gathering from the tangled sentences that the one was thanking her for her assistance and the other apologizing for the misbehaviour of her son, Alex sighed. Situations like this were extremely hard for her to cope with. Thankfully, Mizuki perceived her discomfort and quickly came to her aid. "Oh! One at a time!" she suggested, flashing a mischievous grin in their direction.

This request was quickly followed by a quiet, hurried, and extremely polite argument as each tried to urge the other to go first. Finally, the girlish woman stepped back, thus effectively giving the opportunity to speak first to her companion.

The girl bowed hurriedly, her long pigtails dangling in front of her, brushing the ground. "Sinclair-san, thank you for saving me!"

Alex regarded her with calm eyes. "What's your name, girl?" she asked, trying to ignore the pain as she spoke.

"Ryuzaki Sakuno," the girl replied, bobbing her head down even further.

Alex sighed. "Please stop bowing," she begged.

Sakuno raised her head. "B-but you saved me, and now you're hurt!" She burst into tears.

Alex glanced away from her. "I didn't save you to make you cry," she reminded the other girl. "Please. Dry your tears."

Sakuno rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands and tried to gulp back her sobs. Her grandmother gently led her away. The other woman came forward. "I-I guess it's my turn," she murmured. Halfway through bowing sincerely, she remembered Alex's previous objections and straightened. Refusing to meet Alex's gaze, she began to apologize once again on behalf of her son.

"You are that boy's mother?" Alex enquired as soon as there was silence enough for her to speak. The woman nodded slightly, still too upset to look at Alex. "Akutsu Yuuki. My son's name is Jin." She hesitated for a moment, before continuing. "I'm so sorry for what he did."

"It's fine," Alex replied, with a slight wince as her attempt at a reassuring smile caused the small injuries on her face to twinge. "Thank you for coming here."

Yuuki nodded. Apologizing once more and wishing Alex a speedy recovery, she bowed out of the room, just as Atobe made his grand entrance. Sweeping the curtain back, he posed briefly to make sure he had everyone's attention, before striding importantly towards Alex, Kabaji following as unobtrusively as was possible closely behind him. Mizuki rolled her eyes derisively.

Kaidoh scowled as Atobe began to speak. He had not been particularly happy when Alex had informed him that she had agreed to go to Atobe's ridiculous functions almost every weekend. And now here was Atobe calling his girlfriend 'Alex-chan', and practically forcing his private physician on her.

The green-eyed monster of jealousy reared its ugly head. Kaidoh hissed involuntarily, before stopping himself at a glance from Alex. She had already made it quite clear that what she did with Atobe was her business. He just couldn't help being slightly jealous of the older, richer, and self-confessedly more good-looking boy.

Alex turned her attention back to Atobe. Thanking him for his offer of the physician, she politely declined. "I can recuperate perfectly well by myself," she informed him. Glancing at Kaidoh, she gave a small smile. "Now if you don't mind, I would like to leave this place."

* * *

Alex unwrapped her obi, taking care that the motion didn't pull too much at her still healing ribs. Removing her kimono and under kimono, a process so much easier than putting them on, she shrugged into a pale purple sleeping yukata, before allowing Monty to slither around her shoulders. 

Neatly hanging the garments she'd just removed, she moved to the kitchen just as the water she'd put on the stove began to boil.

Pouring the hot water on top of the tealeaves she'd earlier placed in her small teapot, she set it aside as she heard a loud knock at the door.

Slipping into a convenient pair of shoes, she pulled the door open. She had just enough time to be surprised at seeing the boy who had broken her ribs, and whose name she remembered to be Akutsu Jin, before she was thrown roughly against the wall, yelling as she felt one of her ribs crack again.

Monty, moving surprisingly fast for a large snake that spent most of its time either sleeping or wrapped around Alex's shoulders, twined himself around Akutsu's torso, pinning the arm that wasn't at Alex's throat to his body.

Akutu's hand tightened around Alex's neck. "Get your snake off me!" he growled.

Alex was silent. Akutsu's hand tightened still further as Monty contracted his surprisingly muscular body around the boy that threatened his Alex, before loosening as the pain of being crushed became a reality. "Bitch! It's gonna kill me!" he swore.

Alex stared down at him, unmoved, as he collapsed to his knees. She heard something crack. Akutsu opened his mouth to yell, but not enough air still remained in his lungs to create sound.

Alex remained still as, unable to fight the lack of oxygen any longer, his eyes slid shut, leaving him in darkness.

* * *

Jin slowly opened his eyes, blinking as they came into focus. He didn't recognize this place. Was he dead? The room looked too ordinary, too boring to be either heaven or hell. There was even somebody's laundry drying in a corner. 

Akutsu shifted as movement registered in the corner of his eye, grunting as the motion drew attention to the pain of cracked ribs and squashed insides. He looked on with suspicion as the girl with the snake knelt down to place a small tray bearing two teacups and a small, traditional style teapot on a low table, glaring as she glanced in his direction.

"Akutsu Jin-san?" she enquired. Her voice was gentler than he remembered. "Would you care for some tea?"

Akutsu climbed to his feet. The snake around Alex's shoulders shifted to watch his actions, hissing warningly. Alex raised a hand to stroke its head, quieting it. "Sinclair Alexandra," she introduced herself, bowing her head briefly. Akutsu glared at her, but consented to kneel down opposite her at the table. Alex calmly poured tea into the two cups and gestured that Akutsu should take one. He ignored it.

Alex lifted the other cup gracefully to her lips. "Your mother worries about you," she said quietly, after moments of silence.

Akutsu's glare became a snarl. "So!?" he growled. He lifted a hand and swiped at the cup still on the table, sending it flying across the room to smash loudly against the wall, spraying tea and ceramics. Alex did not so much as blink.

Then Akutsu was on his feet. "It's none of your business, you crazy bitch! You let your snake almost crush me to death, then you serve me tea and lecture me about my mother!? What the fuck are you on!? Go to hell!"

Akutsu spun around and stalked towards the door.

"Akutsu-san." Alex's tone of voice had not changed in the slightest. Akutsu paused to pull on his shoes, trying to ignore her.

"Next time you come here, please leave your aggression behind," she requested quietly.

"There will be no next time!" Akutsu growled, without turning around. Pulling the door open, he stalked out, slamming it furiously shut behind him.

* * *

Sorry it took so long. I've been rather lacking in motivation recently. It's far too hot to do anything but watch TV and eat kakigoori… 


	9. Faux Halloween

Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis.

* * *

**Faux Halloween

* * *

**

Alex stared passively at the three girls who had accosted in the classroom as soon as lunch break started. She had noticed that these three girls, who had been quite obvious Kaidoh fangirls until just recently, had been making up to her for a little over a week. She was fairly sure that their motive was questionable. It was obvious just from the fact that one of them had an unfortunate tendency to giggle whenever she said something she didn't really mean, which recently was all the time.

And now their goal had just been made clear.

Alex weighed her options. It was possible that she could twist their plan to her own uses. At any rate, it wouldn't hurt to go along with it, just for now.

She smiled politely. "Yes, I think I could hold a study session at my house. I'm afraid I have work tonight, but would tomorrow night be ok?"

The three girls nodded in unison, one of them obviously trying to hold back her giggles. "Tomorrow is great! You're such a good friend, Alex-chan!"

"Very well, then I will see you tomorrow afternoon, say at about 4:30?"

"Fine, fine!" the girls said hurriedly. "See you then!" one of them added, before all three rushed off to gloat over their apparent victory.

Mizuki raised an eyebrow as they left. "Why did you say ok? You know they're up to no good." She leaned against Alex's desk casually.

Alex winked at her. "I may be able to scare them off," she hinted.

Mizuki grinned "Oh! Alex-chan has a plan!" she crowed. She poked Kaidoh, still seated at his desk next to Alex. "Are you going to get this guy to help you?" She paid no heed as Kaidoh hissed at her.

Alex shook her head. "No. I'd prefer to do this one alone."

* * *

Alex, satisfied, put the lid on the sauce she'd been stirring and turned down the heat to let it simmer. There was currently enough chilli in the dish to add a sharp smell of disinfectant to the air around her house. She liked spicy foods, although to be perfectly honest she rarely made them this hot. This sauce, however, had been specifically created based on the premise that the three girls who were expected any minute now would not be able to handle something quite so chilli.

Glancing around her apartment to check that all her preparations were in place, she heard a knock at the door, slightly earlier than expected. Draping Monty over her shoulders, she hurried to answer it, and was surprised slightly by the sight of Akutsu Jin, rather than the three girls she was expecting.

"…Yo." Akutsu greeted her awkwardly, shooting a dirty look at the snake twined around her neck. Alex smiled at him. "Good evening. I'm expecting other guests, but would you like to come in?"

Akutsu nodded. Alex gestured him inside, closing the door behind him. "I'm afraid the guests I'm expecting aren't very pleasant. Although if they don't bother you too much, you're welcome to join us."

Akutsu grunted. "I'll stay."

Alex gestured for him to make himself comfortable as her doorbell rang. This time it was the three girls as expected. They stared at her as she opened the door. "A-Alex-chan," one of them stammered, eyeballing Monty, "Uh… there's a snake…"

Alex nodded, gesturing for them to come in. The girls edged past her nervously as they entered the apartment, huddled close together. "He's my pet python." She explained, adding his name. Waiting for the girls to take off their shoes, she then led the way into her apartment. Inviting the girls to be seated, she introduced them to Akutsu, who glared at them. The three girls huddled together even closer.

They studied for a while, Alex offering occasional suggestions to help with everyone's English homework. The girls seemed disappointed, having intended to sneak off and do a bit of snooping into Alex's personal life, however, it was obvious from the layout of the apartment that any attempt to go anywhere out-of-bounds would be noticed immediately.

Looking around the room, one of the girls noticed a few photos which seemed to have been dropped in a corner. Pointing these photos out discreetly to her friends, they attempted to huddle closer, but unfortunately were already practically sitting on each other. Akutsu noticed this and glanced over at the photos. They were quite graphic, depicting what appeared to be the results of torture. A couple of them had suspiciously dark stains on them. Akutsu smirked. Alex was obviously trying hard to scare these girls off. He had to admire her methods, although to his mind it was all as obviously fake as a house full of cheap Halloween decorations.

With this in mind, Akutsu nearly cracked up laughing when Alex managed to draw the conversation around to a topic that allowed her to mention, quite pleasantly, how irritating it was when people thought they could get away with causing trouble. He found this whole situation extremely amusing. Thus, when Alex excused herself to make some tea, he decided to join in.

Glaring at the girls across the table, he cleared is throat pointedly. All three girls flinched and looked at him nervously.

"If you bitches do anything to Sinclair, I'll fucking beat the shit out of you," he growled, hiding a smirk as they flinched again.

At this point, Alex wandered out of the kitchen, holding a pot full of bright red sauce. "Did anyone want something to eat?" she enquired, displaying the pot. "I prepared this earlier…"

The three girls finally reached breaking point. Their overheating brains recalling every horror movie they ever saw, they freaked out at the sight of the red substance. "No!" shrieked one, as all three scrambled to their feet. "We, er, we were just leaving, actually!" They rushed for the door. "Goodbye!" they screamed, as they slammed it shut behind them. Akutsu, unable to take it anymore, burst out laughing. Alex stared after them. "They left their things." She noted, giggling slightly as though Akutsu's laughter were infectious.

Alex placed the pot on the table and went to fetch the tea, placing two cups on the table before kneeling down indirectly across from Akutsu, who grinned at her. "You're sadistic. I like it," he informed her.

"Thank you, I think," Alex responded teasingly.

* * *

Alex sighed. It was another school day, and it seemed those girls hadn't really learned to leave her alone at all. Real life had apparently reasserted itself since their fright, and now they were back to being as bitchy as ever. She was honestly glad that the day was over and she could finally go home.

"Sinclair-san." Inui appeared from nowhere, blocking Alex's path as she was about to leave the school grounds. "Inui-san," she greeted him politely, halting.

Inui's glasses glinted at her. "Tezuka would like to see you," he informed her. Alex raised an eyebrow. "So why does Tezuka-san not come to see me himself?" she enquired.

"He is currently indisposed and was unable to look for you himself. He will meet you in ten minutes behind the clubhouse." Inui's face was unreadable.

Alex scrutinised him for a second and then nodded slightly. "Very well. I will be there."

Inui looked satisfied and strode off. Alex wandered off in the direction of the tennis club's clubhouse, wondering what in the world Tezuka could possibly want her to do now. Reaching the clubhouse and rounding a corner to reach the rear of the building, she froze in her tracks.

Kaidoh looked around as he heard the intrusion. One arm pinned a girl from a neighbouring school against the back wall of the building. His other hand was on her hip. She herself had one arm still wrapped around Kaidoh's neck, and she was using her other hand to discreetly wipe away the thin tendril of saliva which had stretched between them as they broke apart.

Alex stared at them for a second, then unfroze. "Oh. Sorry to interrupt. I'll be going now…"

She'd gone before either of the pair could utter a word.

* * *

Sorry it's been so long. My muse died, always a terrible event. I decided to write this chapter less than 12 hours ago, and got it done as quickly as possible, as I feel slightly guilty for letting this story hang for more than two years.

I'm still far from giving up on this story. Now that it seems I've got my muse back, I shall do my best to give regular updates until the conclusion is reached. It's all planned out, with lots of twists and turns still to come. I hope you'll enjoy it.


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